Name

rmdir - remove directories

Synopsis

rmdir [-p] directory [...]

Description

The rmdir utility removes the directory entry specified by each directory
argument, provided it is empty.

Arguments are processed in the order given. In order to remove both a
parent directory and a subdirectory of that parent, the subdirectory must
be specified first so the parent directory is empty when rmdir tries to
remove it.

The options are as follows:

-p

Each directory argument is treated as a pathname of which all components will be removed, if they are empty, starting with the last most component. (See rm(1) for fully non-discriminant recursive removal.)

The rmdir utility exits with one of the following values:

0

Each directory entry specified by a dir operand referred to an empty directory and was removed successfully.

>0

An error occurred.

Examples

rmdir foobar

Remove the directory foobar if it is empty.

rmdir -p cow/horse/monkey

Remove all directories up to and including monkey, stopping at the first
non-empty directory (if any).

See Also

rm(1) , rmdir(2)

Standards

The rmdir utility is expected to be IEEE Std1003.2 (``POSIX.2'') compatible.

History

A rmdir command appeared in Version 1 AT&T UNIX.

Table of Contents

• Name
• Synopsis
• Description
• Examples
• See Also
• Standards
• History