freebsd-dev/bin/rmdir/rmdir.1

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.\"	@(#)rmdir.1	8.1 (Berkeley) 5/31/93
.\" $FreeBSD$
.\"
.Dd March 15, 2013
.Dt RMDIR 1
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm rmdir
.Nd remove directories
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm
.Op Fl pv
.Ar directory ...
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Nm
utility removes the directory entry specified by
each
.Ar directory
argument, provided it is empty.
.Pp
Arguments are processed in the order given.
In order to remove both a parent directory and a subdirectory
of that parent, the subdirectory
must be specified first so the parent directory
is empty when
.Nm
tries to remove it.
.Pp
The following option is available:
.Bl -tag -width indent
.It Fl p
Each
.Ar directory
argument is treated as a pathname of which all
components will be removed, if they are empty,
starting with the last most component.
(See
.Xr rm 1
for fully non-discriminant recursive removal.)
.It Fl v
Be verbose, listing each directory as it is removed.
.El
.Sh EXIT STATUS
The
.Nm
utility exits with one of the following values:
.Bl -tag -width indent
.It Li 0
Each directory entry specified by a
.Ar directory
operand
referred to an empty directory and was removed
successfully.
.It Li >0
An error occurred.
.El
.Sh EXAMPLES
Remove the directory
.Pa foobar ,
if it is empty:
.Pp
.Dl $ rmdir foobar
.Pp
Remove all directories up to and including
.Pa cow ,
stopping at the first non-empty directory (if any):
.Pp
.Dl $ rmdir -p cow/horse/monkey
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr rm 1
.Sh STANDARDS
The
.Nm
utility is expected to be
.St -p1003.2
compatible.
.Sh HISTORY
A
.Nm
command appeared in
.At v1 .