12.7 rmdir: Remove empty directories
rmdir removes empty directories. Synopsis:
rmdir [option]... directory...
If any directory argument does not refer to an existing empty
directory, it is an error.
The program accepts the following options. Also see Common options.
- ‘--ignore-fail-on-non-empty’
- Ignore each failure to remove a directory that is solely because
the directory is non-empty.
- ‘-p’
- ‘--parents’
- Remove directory, then try to remove each component of directory.
So, for example, ‘rmdir -p a/b/c’ is similar to ‘rmdir a/b/c a/b a’.
As such, it fails if any of those directories turns out not to be empty.
Use the --ignore-fail-on-non-empty option to make it so such
a failure does not evoke a diagnostic and does not cause rmdir to
exit unsuccessfully.
- ‘-v’
- ‘--verbose’
- Give a diagnostic for each successful removal.
directory is removed.
See rm invocation, for how to remove non-empty directories (recursively).
An exit status of zero indicates success,
and a nonzero value indicates failure.