RMDIR(1POSIX)

📦 version 2017a, in debian bookworm, debian trixie, ubuntu jammy, ubuntu noble, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

💖 RMDIR(1POSIX) 💖

okay bestie, so this is the POSIX Programmer's Manual page for rmdir, and we're about to make deleting empty directories feel like a whole main-character moment. 🎀

Quick heads up before we go: this manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. The Linux implementation of this interface may differ (so lowkey go check the corresponding Linux manual page for the details on Linux behavior), or the interface might not even be implemented on Linux at all. 🙈

✨ PROLOG ✨

This 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. iykyk 🌈

🌸 NAME 🌸

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

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

rmdir [-p] dir...

💜 DESCRIPTION 💜

So the rmdir utility shall remove the directory entry specified by each dir operand. Not the files inside, not the drama — just the directory entry itself. ✨

For each dir operand, rmdir shall perform actions equivalent to the rmdir() function being called with the dir operand as its only argument. no cap.

Directories shall be processed in the order specified. And here's the tea: if you specify a directory AND a subdirectory of that directory in a single invocation of rmdir, the application shall specify the subdirectory before the parent directory — that way the parent directory will actually be empty by the time rmdir tries to remove it. order matters, bestie. 🫶

✨ OPTIONS ✨

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

The following option shall be supported:

  • -p — Remove all directories in a pathname. And for each dir operand, here's the lil checklist:
    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)

🎀 OPERANDS 🎀

The following operand shall be supported:

  • dir — A pathname of an empty directory to be removed. empty. that's the whole requirement. if it's not empty she's not going, periodt. 💀

💅 STDIN 💅

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

🌈 INPUT FILES 🌈

None.

⭐ 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's the boss, she overrides everything. 👑
  • 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.

🦋 ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS 🦋

Default.

🍓 STDOUT 🍓

Not used. she's not chatting, she's working. 💅

🌸 STDERR 🌸

The standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages. only for the important stuff, bestie.

🧚 OUTPUT FILES 🧚

None.

💖 EXTENDED DESCRIPTION 💖

None.

✨ EXIT STATUS ✨

The following exit values shall be returned:

  • 0 — Each directory entry specified by a dir operand was removed successfully. ate and left no crumbs. 🎀
  • >0 — An error occurred. 💀

🔥 CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS 🔥

Default.

The following sections are informative.

💜 APPLICATION USAGE 💜

The definition of an empty directory is one that contains, at most, directory entries for dot and dot-dot. so . and .. are fine, everything else? not on her watch. ✨

🌈 EXAMPLES 🌈

okay imagine this: 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. girl, that's a whole chain:

rmdir -p a/b/c

this removes all three directories. iconic behavior fr fr. 🔥

👑 RATIONALE 👑

On historical System V systems, the -p option also caused a message to be written to the standard output. That 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 it does not allow the status message reporting success to be written as a diagnostic. so basically, no celebratory message allowed. 😭

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.

🦋 FUTURE DIRECTIONS 🦋

None.

⭐ 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()

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 .

and that's the whole page, bestie 💖 this was brought to you by IEEE/The Open Group, 2017 — ty for coming to my TED talk, go forth and rmdir responsibly, mwah 🫶✨🎀

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