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.)
EXIT STATUS
The rmdir
utility exits with one of the
following values:
- 0
- Each directory argument referred to an empty directory and was removed successfully.
- >0
- An error occurred.
EXAMPLES
Remove the directory foobar, if it is empty:
$ rmdir foobar
Remove all directories up to and including cow, stopping at the first non-empty directory (if any):
$ rmdir -p
cow/horse/monkey
SEE ALSO
STANDARDS
The rmdir
utility is compliant with the
IEEE Std 1003.1-2008 (“POSIX.1”)
specification.
HISTORY
A rmdir
command appeared in
Version 1 AT&T UNIX.