RMDIR
Section: POSIX Programmer's Manual (3P)
Updated: 2013
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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 a directory
SYNOPSIS
#include <unistd.h>
int rmdir(const char *path);
DESCRIPTION
The
rmdir()
function shall remove a directory whose name is given by
path.
The directory shall be removed only if it is an empty directory.
If the directory is the root directory or the current working directory
of any process, it is unspecified whether the function succeeds, or
whether it shall fail and set
errno
to
[EBUSY].
If
path
names a symbolic link, then
rmdir()
shall fail and set
errno
to
[ENOTDIR].
If the
path
argument refers to a path whose final component is either dot or
dot-dot,
rmdir()
shall fail.
If the directory's link count becomes 0 and no process has the
directory open, the space occupied by the directory shall be freed and
the directory shall no longer be accessible. If one or more processes
have the directory open when the last link is removed, the dot and
dot-dot entries, if present, shall be removed before
rmdir()
returns and no new entries may be created in the directory, but the
directory shall not be removed until all references to the directory
are closed.
If the directory is not an empty directory,
rmdir()
shall fail and set
errno
to
[EEXIST]
or
[ENOTEMPTY].
Upon successful completion,
rmdir()
shall mark for update the last data modification and last file status
change timestamps of the parent directory.
RETURN VALUE
Upon successful completion, the function
rmdir()
shall return 0. Otherwise, -1 shall be returned, and
errno
set to indicate the error. If -1 is returned, the named
directory shall not be changed.
ERRORS
The
rmdir()
function shall fail if:
- EACCES
-
Search permission is denied on a component of the path prefix, or write
permission is denied on the parent directory of the directory to be
removed.
- EBUSY
-
The directory to be removed is currently in use by the system or
some process and the implementation considers this to be an error.
- [EEXIST] or [ENOTEMPTY]
-
The
path
argument names a directory that is not an empty directory, or there are
hard links to the directory other than dot or a single entry in
dot-dot.
- EINVAL
-
The
path
argument contains a last component that is dot.
- EIO
-
A physical I/O error has occurred.
- ELOOP
-
A loop exists in symbolic links encountered during resolution of the
path
argument.
- ENAMETOOLONG
-
The length of a component of a pathname is longer than
{NAME_MAX}.
- ENOENT
-
A component of
path
does not name an existing file, or the
path
argument names a nonexistent directory or points to an empty string.
- ENOTDIR
-
A component of
path
names an existing file that is neither a directory nor a symbolic link
to a directory.
- [EPERM] or [EACCES]
-
The S_ISVTX flag is set on the directory containing the file referred
to by the
path
argument and the process does not satisfy the criteria specified in the Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1-2008,
Section 4.2, Directory Protection.
- EROFS
-
The directory entry to be removed resides on a read-only file system.
The
rmdir()
function may fail if:
- ELOOP
-
More than
{SYMLOOP_MAX}
symbolic links were encountered during resolution of the
path
argument.
- ENAMETOOLONG
-
The length of a pathname exceeds
{PATH_MAX},
or pathname resolution of a symbolic link produced an intermediate
result with a length that exceeds
{PATH_MAX}.
The following sections are informative.
EXAMPLES
Removing a Directory
The following example shows how to remove a directory named
/home/cnd/mod1.
-
#include <unistd.h>
int status;
...
status = rmdir("/home/cnd/mod1");
APPLICATION USAGE
None.
RATIONALE
The
rmdir()
and
rename()
functions originated in 4.2 BSD, and they used
[ENOTEMPTY]
for the condition when the directory to be removed does not exist or
new
already exists. When the 1984 /usr/group standard was published, it contained
[EEXIST]
instead. When these functions were adopted into System V, the
1984 /usr/group standard was used as a reference. Therefore, several existing applications
and implementations support/use both forms, and no agreement could be
reached on either value. All implementations are required to supply
both
[EEXIST]
and
[ENOTEMPTY]
in
<errno.h>
with distinct values, so that applications can use both values in
C-language
case
statements.
The meaning of deleting
pathname/dot
is unclear, because the name of the file (directory) in the parent
directory to be removed is not clear, particularly in the presence of
multiple links to a directory.
The POSIX.1-1990 standard was silent with regard to the behavior of
rmdir()
when there are multiple hard links to the directory being removed. The
requirement to set
errno
to
[EEXIST]
or
[ENOTEMPTY]
clarifies the behavior in this case.
If the current working directory of the process is being removed, that
should be an allowed error.
Virtually all existing implementations detect
[ENOTEMPTY]
or the case of dot-dot. The text in
Section 2.3,
Error Numbers
about returning any one of the possible errors permits that behavior to
continue. The
[ELOOP]
error may be returned if more than
{SYMLOOP_MAX}
symbolic links are encountered during resolution of the
path
argument.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
None.
SEE ALSO
Section 2.3,
Error Numbers,
mkdir(),
remove(),
rename(),
unlink()
The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1-2008,
Section 4.2,
Directory Protection,
<unistd.h>
COPYRIGHT
Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form
from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2013 Edition, Standard for Information Technology
-- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
Specifications Issue 7, Copyright (C) 2013 by the Institute of
Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group.
(This is POSIX.1-2008 with the 2013 Technical Corrigendum 1 applied.) 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.unix.org/online.html .
Any typographical or formatting errors that appear
in this page are most likely
to have been introduced during the conversion of the source files to
man page format. To report such errors, see
https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .
Index
- PROLOG
-
- NAME
-
- SYNOPSIS
-
- DESCRIPTION
-
- RETURN VALUE
-
- ERRORS
-
- EXAMPLES
-
- Removing a Directory
-
- APPLICATION USAGE
-
- RATIONALE
-
- FUTURE DIRECTIONS
-
- SEE ALSO
-
- COPYRIGHT
-
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