rmdir(2)

NAME

     rmdir - remove a directory

SYNOPSIS

     #include <unistd.h>

     int rmdir(const char *path);

DESCRIPTION

     The rmdir() function removes the directory named by the path
     name  pointed  to  by  path. The directory must not have any
     entries other than "." and "..".

     If the directory's link count becomes zero  and  no  process
     has  the directory open, the space occupied by the directory
     is freed and the directory is no longer accessible.  If  one
     or more processes have the directory open when the last link
     is removed, the  "."  and  ".."  entries,  if  present,  are
     removed  before  rmdir()  returns  and no new entries may be
     created in the directory, but the directory is  not  removed
     until all references to the directory have been closed.

     Upon successful completion  rmdir()  marks  for  update  the
     st_ctime and st_mtime fields of the parent directory.

RETURN VALUES

     Upon successful completion, 0 is returned. Otherwise, -1  is
     returned,  errno is set to indicate the error, and the named
     directory is not changed.

ERRORS

     The rmdir() function will fail if:

     EACCES
           Search permission is denied for  a  component  of  the
           path  prefix; write permission is denied on the direc-
           tory containing  the  directory  to  be  removed;  the
           parent  directory has the S_ISVTX variable set and  is
           not owned by the user; the directory is not  owned  by
           the  user and is not writable by the user; or the user
           is not a super-user.

     EBUSY The directory to be removed is the mount point  for  a
           mounted file system.

     EEXIST
           The directory contains entries other  than  those  for
           "." and "..".

     EFAULT
           The path argument points to an illegal address.

     EINVAL
           The directory to be removed is the current  directory,
           or the final component of path is ".".

     EIO   An I/O error occurred while accessing the file system.

     ELOOP Too many symbolic links were encountered in  translat-
           ing path.

     ENAMETOOLONG
           The length of the path argument exceeds  PATH_MAX,  or
           the  length of a path component exceeds NAME_MAX while
           _POSIX_NO_TRUNC is in effect.

     ENOENT
           The named directory does not  exist  or  is  the  null
           pathname.

     ENOLINK
           The path argument points to a remote machine, and  the
           connection to that machine is no longer active.

     ENOTDIR
           A component of the path prefix is not a directory.

     EROFS The directory entry to be removed is part of  a  read-
           only file system.

ATTRIBUTES

     See attributes(5) for descriptions of the  following  attri-
     butes:

     ____________________________________________________________
    |       ATTRIBUTE TYPE        |       ATTRIBUTE VALUE       |
    |_____________________________|_____________________________|
    | MT-Level                    | Async-Signal-Safe           |
    |_____________________________|_____________________________|

SEE ALSO

     mkdir(1), rm(1), mkdir(2), attributes(5)