rmdir() - Unix, Linux System Call

NAME

rmdir - delete a directory

#include <unistd.h>

int rmdir(const char *pathname);

rmdir() deletes a directory, which must be empty.

On success, zero is returned. On error, -1 is returned, and errno is set appropriately.

Tag	Description
EACCES	Write access to the directory containing pathname was not allowed, or one of the directories in the path prefix of pathname did not allow search permission. (See also path_resolution(2).
EBUSY	pathname is currently in use by the system or some process that prevents its removal. On Linux this means pathname is currently used as a mount point or is the root directory of the calling process.
EFAULT	pathname points outside your accessible address space.
EINVAL	pathname has . as last component.
ELOOP	Too many symbolic links were encountered in resolving pathname.
ENAMETOOLONG
	pathname was too long.
ENOENT	A directory component in pathname does not exist or is a dangling symbolic link.
ENOMEM	Insufficient kernel memory was available.
ENOTDIR
	pathname, or a component used as a directory in pathname, is not, in fact, a directory.
ENOTEMPTY
	pathname contains entries other than . and .. ; or, pathname has .. as its final component.
EPERM	The directory containing pathname has the sticky bit (S_ISVTX) set and the process’s effective user ID is neither the user ID of the file to be deleted nor that of the directory containing it, and the process is not privileged (Linux: does not have the CAP_FOWNER capability).
EPERM	The filesystem containing pathname does not support the removal of directories.
EROFS	pathname refers to a file on a read-only filesystem.

SVr4, 4.3BSD, POSIX.1-2001.

Infelicities in the protocol underlying NFS can cause the unexpected disappearance of directories which are still being used.