xref: /freebsd/bin/rmdir/rmdir.1 (revision 5e3190f700637fcfc1a52daeaa4a031fdd2557c7)
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32.\"	@(#)rmdir.1	8.1 (Berkeley) 5/31/93
33.\"
34.Dd March 15, 2013
35.Dt RMDIR 1
36.Os
37.Sh NAME
38.Nm rmdir
39.Nd remove directories
40.Sh SYNOPSIS
41.Nm
42.Op Fl pv
43.Ar directory ...
44.Sh DESCRIPTION
45The
46.Nm
47utility removes the directory entry specified by
48each
49.Ar directory
50argument, provided it is empty.
51.Pp
52Arguments are processed in the order given.
53In order to remove both a parent directory and a subdirectory
54of that parent, the subdirectory
55must be specified first so the parent directory
56is empty when
57.Nm
58tries to remove it.
59.Pp
60The following option is available:
61.Bl -tag -width indent
62.It Fl p
63Each
64.Ar directory
65argument is treated as a pathname of which all
66components will be removed, if they are empty,
67starting with the last most component.
68(See
69.Xr rm 1
70for fully non-discriminant recursive removal.)
71.It Fl v
72Be verbose, listing each directory as it is removed.
73.El
74.Sh EXIT STATUS
75The
76.Nm
77utility exits with one of the following values:
78.Bl -tag -width indent
79.It Li 0
80Each directory entry specified by a
81.Ar directory
82operand
83referred to an empty directory and was removed
84successfully.
85.It Li >0
86An error occurred.
87.El
88.Sh EXAMPLES
89Remove the directory
90.Pa foobar ,
91if it is empty:
92.Pp
93.Dl $ rmdir foobar
94.Pp
95Remove all directories up to and including
96.Pa cow ,
97stopping at the first non-empty directory (if any):
98.Pp
99.Dl $ rmdir -p cow/horse/monkey
100.Sh SEE ALSO
101.Xr rm 1
102.Sh STANDARDS
103The
104.Nm
105utility is expected to be
106.St -p1003.2
107compatible.
108.Sh HISTORY
109A
110.Nm
111command appeared in
112.At v1 .
113