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RMDIR(1P)                  POSIX Programmer's Manual                 RMDIR(1P)

PROLOG
       This  manual  page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual.  The Linux
       implementation of this interface may differ (consult the  corresponding
       Linux  manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the interface may
       not be implemented on Linux.
NAME
       rmdir - remove directories
SYNOPSIS
       rmdir [-p] dir...
DESCRIPTION
       The rmdir utility shall remove the directory entry  specified  by  each
       dir operand.
       For  each  dir operand, the rmdir utility shall perform actions equiva-
       lent to the rmdir() function called with the dir operand  as  its  only
       argument.
       Directories  shall  be processed in the order specified. If a directory
       and a subdirectory of that directory are specified in a single  invoca-
       tion  of the rmdir utility, the application shall specify the subdirec-
       tory before the parent directory so that the parent directory  will  be
       empty when the rmdir utility tries to remove it.
OPTIONS
       The  rmdir  utility  shall  conform  to  the Base Definitions volume of
       IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Section 12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines.
       The following option shall be supported:
       -p     Remove all directories in a pathname. For each dir operand:
               1. The directory entry it names shall be removed.
               2. If the dir operand includes more than  one  pathname  compo-
                  nent,  effects  equivalent  to  the  following command shall
                  occur:

                  rmdir -p $(dirname dir)
OPERANDS
       The following operand shall be supported:
       dir    A pathname of an empty directory to be removed.

STDIN
       Not used.
INPUT FILES
       None.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
       The following environment  variables  shall  affect  the  execution  of
       rmdir:
       LANG   Provide  a  default value for the internationalization variables
              that are unset or null. (See  the  Base  Definitions  volume  of
              IEEE Std 1003.1-2001,  Section  8.2,  Internationalization Vari-
              ables for the precedence of internationalization variables  used
              to determine the values of locale categories.)
       LC_ALL If  set  to a non-empty string value, override the values of all
              the other internationalization variables.
       LC_CTYPE
              Determine the locale for  the  interpretation  of  sequences  of
              bytes  of  text  data as characters (for example, single-byte as
              opposed to multi-byte characters in arguments).
       LC_MESSAGES
              Determine the locale that should be used to  affect  the  format
              and contents of diagnostic messages written to standard error.
       NLSPATH
              Determine the location of message catalogs for the processing of
              LC_MESSAGES .

ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS
       Default.
STDOUT
       Not used.
STDERR
       The standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages.
OUTPUT FILES
       None.
EXTENDED DESCRIPTION
       None.
EXIT STATUS
       The following exit values shall be returned:
        0     Each directory entry specified by a dir operand was removed suc-
              cessfully.
       >0     An error occurred.

CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS
       Default.
       The following sections are informative.
APPLICATION USAGE
       The  definition  of  an  empty directory is one that contains, at most,
       directory entries for dot and dot-dot.
EXAMPLES
       If a directory a in the current directory is empty except it contains a
       directory b and a/b is empty except it contains a directory c:

              rmdir -p a/b/c
       removes all three directories.
RATIONALE
       On  historical System V systems, the -p option also caused a message to
       be written to the standard output. The message  indicated  whether  the
       whole  path  was  removed or whether part of the path remained for some
       reason. The STDERR section requires this  diagnostic  when  the  entire
       path  specified by a dir operand is not removed, but does not allow the
       status message reporting success to be written as a diagnostic.
       The rmdir utility on System V also included a -s option that suppressed
       the informational message output by the -p option. This option has been
       omitted because the informational message is not specified by this vol-
       ume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
       None.
SEE ALSO
       rm,  the  System  Interfaces  volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, remove(),
       rmdir(), unlink()
COPYRIGHT
       Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in  electronic  form
       from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2003 Edition, Standard for Information Technology
       -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX),  The  Open  Group  Base
       Specifications  Issue  6,  Copyright  (C) 2001-2003 by the Institute of
       Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open  Group.  In  the
       event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and
       The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group  Standard
       is  the  referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online
       at http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .

IEEE/The Open Group                  2003                            RMDIR(1P)