Manual page for rmdir(2)
rmdir - remove a directory
SYNOPSIS
#include <unistd.h>
int rmdir(const char *path);
MT-LEVEL
Async-Signal-Safe
DESCRIPTION
rmdir()
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, a value of 0 is returned.
Otherwise, a value of -1 is returned and
errno
is set to indicate the error.
ERRORS
The named directory is removed unless one or more of the following are true:
- EACCES
-
Search permission is denied for a component of the path prefix.
- EACCES
-
Write permission is denied on the directory containing the directory
to be removed.
- EACCES
-
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; 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
-
path
points to an illegal address.
- EINVAL
-
The directory to be removed is the current directory.
- EINVAL
-
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 translating path.
- EMULTIHOP
-
Components of path require hopping to
multiple remote machines
and the file system does not allow it.
- 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
-
path 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to that machine is no longer active.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.
SEE ALSO
mkdir.1
rm.1
mkdir.2
Created by unroff & hp-tools.
© by Hans-Peter Bischof. All Rights Reserved (1997).
Last modified 21/April/97
