rmdir.1p (5511B)
- '\" et
- .TH RMDIR "1P" 2017 "IEEE/The Open Group" "POSIX Programmer's Manual"
- .\"
- .SH 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.
- .\"
- .SH NAME
- rmdir
- \(em remove directories
- .SH SYNOPSIS
- .LP
- .nf
- rmdir \fB[\fR-p\fB]\fI dir\fR...
- .fi
- .SH DESCRIPTION
- The
- .IR rmdir
- utility shall remove the directory entry specified by each
- .IR dir
- operand.
- .P
- For each
- .IR dir
- operand, the
- .IR rmdir
- utility shall perform actions equivalent to the
- \fIrmdir\fR()
- function called with the
- .IR dir
- operand as its only argument.
- .P
- Directories shall be processed in the order specified. If a directory
- and a subdirectory of that directory are specified in a single
- invocation of the
- .IR rmdir
- utility, the application shall specify the subdirectory before the
- parent directory so that the parent directory will be empty when the
- .IR rmdir
- utility tries to remove it.
- .SH OPTIONS
- The
- .IR rmdir
- utility shall conform to the Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1\(hy2017,
- .IR "Section 12.2" ", " "Utility Syntax Guidelines".
- .P
- The following option shall be supported:
- .IP "\fB\-p\fP" 10
- Remove all directories in a pathname. For each
- .IR dir
- operand:
- .RS 10
- .IP " 1." 4
- The directory entry it names shall be removed.
- .IP " 2." 4
- If the
- .IR dir
- operand includes more than one pathname component, effects equivalent
- to the following command shall occur:
- .RS 4
- .sp
- .RS 4
- .nf
- rmdir -p $(dirname \fIdir\fP)
- .fi
- .P
- .RE
- .RE
- .RE
- .SH OPERANDS
- The following operand shall be supported:
- .IP "\fIdir\fR" 10
- A pathname of an empty directory to be removed.
- .SH STDIN
- Not used.
- .SH "INPUT FILES"
- None.
- .SH "ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES"
- The following environment variables shall affect the execution of
- .IR rmdir :
- .IP "\fILANG\fP" 10
- Provide a default value for the internationalization variables that are
- unset or null. (See the Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1\(hy2017,
- .IR "Section 8.2" ", " "Internationalization Variables"
- for the precedence of internationalization variables used to determine
- the values of locale categories.)
- .IP "\fILC_ALL\fP" 10
- If set to a non-empty string value, override the values of all the
- other internationalization variables.
- .IP "\fILC_CTYPE\fP" 10
- 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).
- .IP "\fILC_MESSAGES\fP" 10
- .br
- Determine the locale that should be used to affect the format and
- contents of diagnostic messages written to standard error.
- .IP "\fINLSPATH\fP" 10
- Determine the location of message catalogs for the processing of
- .IR LC_MESSAGES .
- .SH "ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS"
- Default.
- .SH STDOUT
- Not used.
- .SH STDERR
- The standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages.
- .SH "OUTPUT FILES"
- None.
- .SH "EXTENDED DESCRIPTION"
- None.
- .SH "EXIT STATUS"
- The following exit values shall be returned:
- .IP "\00" 6
- Each directory entry specified by a
- .IR dir
- operand was removed successfully.
- .IP >0 6
- An error occurred.
- .SH "CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS"
- Default.
- .LP
- .IR "The following sections are informative."
- .SH "APPLICATION USAGE"
- The definition of an empty directory is one that contains, at most,
- directory entries for dot and dot-dot.
- .SH EXAMPLES
- If a directory
- .BR a
- in the current directory is empty except it contains a directory
- .BR b
- and
- .BR a/b
- is empty except it contains a directory
- .BR c :
- .sp
- .RS 4
- .nf
- rmdir -p a/b/c
- .fi
- .P
- .RE
- .P
- removes all three directories.
- .SH RATIONALE
- On historical System V systems, the
- .BR \-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
- .IR dir
- operand is not removed, but does not allow the status message reporting
- success to be written as a diagnostic.
- .P
- The
- .IR rmdir
- utility on System V also included a
- .BR \-s
- option that suppressed the informational message output by the
- .BR \-p
- option. This option has been omitted because the informational message
- is not specified by this volume of POSIX.1\(hy2017.
- .SH "FUTURE DIRECTIONS"
- None.
- .SH "SEE ALSO"
- .IR "\fIrm\fR\^"
- .P
- The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1\(hy2017,
- .IR "Chapter 8" ", " "Environment Variables",
- .IR "Section 12.2" ", " "Utility Syntax Guidelines"
- .P
- The System Interfaces volume of POSIX.1\(hy2017,
- .IR "\fIremove\fR\^(\|)",
- .IR "\fIrmdir\fR\^(\|)",
- .IR "\fIunlink\fR\^(\|)"
- .\"
- .SH COPYRIGHT
- Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form
- from IEEE Std 1003.1-2017, Standard for Information Technology
- -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
- Specifications Issue 7, 2018 Edition,
- Copyright (C) 2018 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 .
- .PP
- 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 .