NAME

rmdir — remove directories

SYNOPSIS

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 following options are available:

-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.)

-v

Cause rmdir to be verbose, showing directories as they are processed.

EXIT STATUS

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.

SEE ALSO

rm(1)

STANDARDS

The rmdir utility is expected to be IEEE Std 1003.2 (“POSIX.2”) compatible.

HISTORY

An rmdir utility appeared in Version 1 AT&T UNIX.