xref: /freebsd/bin/rmdir/rmdir.1 (revision 7c43148a974877188a930e4078a164f83da8e652)
1.\"-
2.\" Copyright (c) 1990, 1993
3.\"	The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.
4.\"
5.\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by
6.\" the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.
7.\"
8.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
9.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
10.\" are met:
11.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
12.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
13.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
14.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
15.\"    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
16.\" 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
17.\"    may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
18.\"    without specific prior written permission.
19.\"
20.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
21.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
22.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
23.\" ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
24.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
25.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
26.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
27.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
28.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
29.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
30.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
31.\"
32.Dd March 15, 2013
33.Dt RMDIR 1
34.Os
35.Sh NAME
36.Nm rmdir
37.Nd remove directories
38.Sh SYNOPSIS
39.Nm
40.Op Fl pv
41.Ar directory ...
42.Sh DESCRIPTION
43The
44.Nm
45utility removes the directory entry specified by
46each
47.Ar directory
48argument, provided it is empty.
49.Pp
50Arguments are processed in the order given.
51In order to remove both a parent directory and a subdirectory
52of that parent, the subdirectory
53must be specified first so the parent directory
54is empty when
55.Nm
56tries to remove it.
57.Pp
58The following option is available:
59.Bl -tag -width indent
60.It Fl p
61Each
62.Ar directory
63argument is treated as a pathname of which all
64components will be removed, if they are empty,
65starting with the last most component.
66(See
67.Xr rm 1
68for fully non-discriminant recursive removal.)
69.It Fl v
70Be verbose, listing each directory as it is removed.
71.El
72.Sh EXIT STATUS
73The
74.Nm
75utility exits with one of the following values:
76.Bl -tag -width indent
77.It Li 0
78Each directory entry specified by a
79.Ar directory
80operand
81referred to an empty directory and was removed
82successfully.
83.It Li >0
84An error occurred.
85.El
86.Sh EXAMPLES
87Remove the directory
88.Pa foobar ,
89if it is empty:
90.Pp
91.Dl $ rmdir foobar
92.Pp
93Remove all directories up to and including
94.Pa cow ,
95stopping at the first non-empty directory (if any):
96.Pp
97.Dl $ rmdir -p cow/horse/monkey
98.Sh SEE ALSO
99.Xr rm 1
100.Sh STANDARDS
101The
102.Nm
103utility is expected to be
104.St -p1003.2
105compatible.
106.Sh HISTORY
107A
108.Nm
109command appeared in
110.At v1 .
111