<!-- Copyright (c) 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2008, 2009, 2013 The President and Fellows of Harvard College. Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met: 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission. THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE UNIVERSITY AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE UNIVERSITY OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE. --> <html> <head> <title>rmdir</title> <body bgcolor=#ffffff> <h2 align=center>rmdir</h2> <h4 align=center>OS/161 Reference Manual</h4> <h3>Name</h3> <p> rmdir - remove directory </p> <h3>Library</h3> <p> Standard C Library (libc, -lc) </p> <h3>Synopsis</h3> <p> <tt>#include <unistd.h></tt><br> <br> <tt>int</tt><br> <tt>rmdir(const char *</tt><em>pathname</em><tt>);</tt> </p> <h3>Description</h3> <p> <tt>rmdir</tt> removes the directory named by <em>pathname</em>. The directory (and all the components in its path prefix) must exist. The directory must be empty, except for the <tt>.</tt> and <tt>..</tt> entries, and may not be the root directory of the filesystem. </p> <p> It is invalid to attempt to remove the <tt>.</tt> or <tt>..</tt> entries in a directory. What rmdir actually removes is a name in some (other, containing) directory; removing the <tt>.</tt> or <tt>..</tt> <i>names</i> would make a mess. It is not invalid for a process to remove its own current directory, but it does not work to do so by calling <tt>rmdir(".")</tt>. </p> <p> It is impossible in any event to remove a directory named with <tt>..</tt>, because it is impossible to name a directory with <tt>..</tt> unless it is not empty. </p> <p> If a directory is in use (e.g. being read by <tt>ls</tt>, or is some process's current directory, etc.) when it is removed, all further accesses to it should be rejected (with ENOENT). Like a file deleted while in use, it should only be fully removed when all remaining references to it are dropped. </p> <p> The removal must be atomic, both with respect to other running processes, and (if implementing a recoverable file system) with respect to crash recovery. </p> <h3>Return Values</h3> <p> On success, <tt>rmdir</tt> returns 0. On error, -1 is returned, and <A HREF=errno.html>errno</A> is set according to the error encountered. </p> <h3>Errors</h3> <p> The following error codes should be returned under the conditions given. Other error codes may be returned for other errors not mentioned here. <table width=90%> <tr><td width=5% rowspan=8> </td> <td width=10% valign=top>ENODEV</td> <td>The device prefix of <em>filename</em> did not exist.</td></tr> <tr><td valign=top>ENOTDIR</td> <td>A non-final component of <em>pathname</em> was not a directory.</td></tr> <tr><td valign=top>ENOTDIR</td> <td><em>pathname</em> referred to an object that was not a directory.</td></tr> <tr><td valign=top>ENOENT</td> <td>The target directory did not exist.</td></tr> <tr><td valign=top>EINVAL</td> <td>An attempt was made to remove a <tt>.</tt> or <tt>..</tt> entry.</td></tr> <tr><td valign=top>ENOTEMPTY</td><td>The target directory was not empty.</td></tr> <tr><td valign=top>EIO</td> <td>A hard I/O error occurred.</td></tr> <tr><td valign=top>EFAULT</td> <td><em>pathname</em> was an invalid pointer.</td></tr> </table> </p> <p> Attempts to remove <tt>..</tt> may generate either EINVAL or ENOTEMPTY. </p> </body> </html>