RMDIR(1P)

💖 RMDIR(1P) — the POSIX Programmer's Manual, but make it cute 💖

okay so bestie, quick heads up before we dive in: this page lives in the POSIX Programmer's Manual, and the Linux implementation of this interface may differ (so like, go check the corresponding Linux manual page for the deets on Linux behavior), or honestly it might not even be implemented on Linux at all. 🙈

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🌸 PROLOG 🌸

This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. The Linux implementation of this interface may differ — consult the corresponding Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior — or the interface may not be implemented on Linux. no cap, that's just how it is 💅

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✨ NAME ✨

rmdir — remove directories. that's it, that's the whole vibe 🎀

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🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

rmdir [-p] dir...

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💜 DESCRIPTION 💜

The rmdir utility shall remove the directory entry specified by each dir operand. bye bye directory entry, you will not be missed 🫶

For each dir operand, rmdir shall perform actions equivalent to the rmdir() function called with the dir operand as its only argument. literally just the function, but make it a command.

Directories shall be processed in the order specified. and here's the part that gets people, so listen up: if a directory and a subdirectory of that directory are specified in a single invocation of rmdir, the application shall specify the subdirectory before the parent directory so that the parent directory will be empty when rmdir tries to remove it. order matters, bestie, it's giving "deepest first" 🧚

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💅 OPTIONS 💅

The rmdir utility shall conform to the Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2017, Section 12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines. iconic behavior, honestly.

The following option shall be supported:

• -p — Remove all directories in a pathname. For each dir operand:
  1. The directory entry it names shall be removed.
  2. If the dir operand includes more than one pathname component, effects equivalent to the following command shall occur:

rmdir -p $(dirname dir)

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🍓 OPERANDS 🍓

The following operand shall be supported:

• dir — A pathname of an empty directory to be removed. emphasis on empty, she is not flexible about this 😭

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🌈 STDIN 🌈

Not used. she doesn't want your input, she's busy.

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🌸 INPUT FILES 🌸

None.

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⭐ ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES ⭐

The following environment variables shall affect the execution of rmdir:

• LANG — Provide a default value for the internationalization variables that are unset or null. (See the Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2017, Section 8.2, Internationalization Variables for the precedence of internationalization variables used to determine the values of locale categories.)
• LC_ALL — If set to a non-empty string value, override the values of all the other internationalization variables. she said "I'm in charge now" 👑
• LC_CTYPE — Determine the locale for the interpretation of sequences of bytes of text data as characters (for example, single-byte as opposed to multi-byte characters in arguments).
• LC_MESSAGES — Determine the locale that should be used to affect the format and contents of diagnostic messages written to standard error.
• NLSPATH — Determine the location of message catalogs for the processing of LC_MESSAGES.

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🦋 ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS 🦋

Default.

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🎀 STDOUT 🎀

Not used. (yes, even with -p. wild, I know. more on that in RATIONALE.)

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💜 STDERR 💜

The standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages.

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🌈 OUTPUT FILES 🌈

None.

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✨ EXTENDED DESCRIPTION ✨

None.

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🔥 EXIT STATUS 🔥

The following exit values shall be returned:

• 0 — Each directory entry specified by a dir operand was removed successfully. slay 💅
• >0 — An error occurred. 💀

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🙈 CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS 🙈

Default.

The following sections are informative.

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🌸 APPLICATION USAGE 🌸

The definition of an empty directory is one that contains, at most, directory entries for dot and dot-dot. so . and .. get a pass, everything else has to go 🧚

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⭐ EXAMPLES ⭐

If a directory a in the current directory is empty except it contains a directory b and a/b is empty except it contains a directory c:

rmdir -p a/b/c

removes all three directories. three for the price of one, obsessed 😭

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💅 RATIONALE 💅

On historical System V systems, the -p option also caused a message to be written to the standard output. The message indicated whether the whole path was removed or whether part of the path remained for some reason. The STDERR section requires this diagnostic when the entire path specified by a dir operand is not removed, but does not allow the status message reporting success to be written as a diagnostic.

The rmdir utility on System V also included a -s option that suppressed the informational message output by the -p option. This option has been omitted because the informational message is not specified by this volume of POSIX.1‐2017. rip -s, you were too good for this standard 🕯️

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🦋 FUTURE DIRECTIONS 🦋

None.

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💜 SEE ALSO 💜

• rm
• The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2017, Chapter 8, Environment Variables, Section 12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines
• The System Interfaces volume of POSIX.1‐2017, remove(), rmdir(), unlink()

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🎀 COPYRIGHT 🎀

Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std 1003.1-2017, Standard for Information Technology -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 7, 2018 Edition, Copyright (C) 2018 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. In the event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online at http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .

Any typographical or formatting errors that appear in this page are most likely to have been introduced during the conversion of the source files to man page format. To report such errors, see https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .

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okay bestie that's the whole page 💖 go forth and remove those empty directories responsibly, and remember: subdirectory BEFORE parent, always 🫶

this lil masterpiece comes to you from IEEE/The Open Group, dated 2017, and it's page RMDIR(1P) of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. periodt. ✨