4.1cBSD/usr/man/man1/rmdir.1

.TH RMDIR 1 "1 April 1981"
.SH NAME
rmdir, rm  \- remove (unlink) directories or files
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B rmdir
dir ...
.PP
.B rm
[
.B \-f
] [
.B \-r
] [
.B \-i
] [
.B \-
] file ...
.PP
.SH DESCRIPTION
.PP
.I Rmdir
removes entries for the named directories, which must be empty.
.PP
.I Rm
removes the entries for one or more files from a directory.
If an entry was the last link to the file, the file is destroyed.
Removal of a file requires write permission in its directory,
but neither read nor write permission on the file itself.
.PP
If a file has no write permission and the standard input is a terminal,
its permissions are printed and a line is read from the standard input.
If that line begins with `y' the file is deleted, otherwise the file remains.
No questions are asked and no errors are reported when the
.B \-f
(force) option is given.
.PP
If a designated file is a directory,
an error comment is printed unless the optional argument
.B \-r
has been used.  In that case,
.I rm
recursively deletes the entire contents of the specified directory,
and the directory itself.
.PP
If the
.B \-i
(interactive) option is in effect,
.I rm
asks whether to delete each file, and, under
.BR \-r ,
whether to examine each directory.
.PP
The null option
.B \-
indicates that all the arguments following it are to be treated as
file names.  This allows the specification of file names starting with
a minus.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
rm(1), unlink(2), rmdir(2)
.SH MESSAGES
.IP "rmdir: arg count" 10
.br
You must specify at least one directory name for \fIrmdir\fP.
.IP "rmdir: cannot remove . or .." 10
.br
You cannot remove the current directory or the parent directory of the
current directory.
.IP "rmdir: \fIdirectory\fP non-existent" 10
.br
The directory specified by \fIdirectory\fP could not be found \(em check
the spelling.
.IP "rmdir: cannot stat " 10
.br
The indicated directory cannot be found, or you don't have search
permission for it.
.IP "rmdir: \fIdirectory\fP not a directory" 10
.br
The object specified by \fIdirectory\fP is not a directory \(em
\fIrmdir\fP will not remove ordinary files.
.IP "rmdir: cannot remove current directory" 10
.br
You cannot remove the current directory.
.IP "rmdir: \fIdirectory\fP unreadable" 10
.br
The directory specified by \fIdirectory\fP cannot be read \(em the
permissions are probably not correct.
.IP "rmdir: \fIdirectory\fP not empty" 10
.br
A directory cannot be removed while it still has files in it.
.IP "rmdir: \fIdirectory\fP: no permission" 10
.br
The parent directory containing the directory specified by
\fIdirectory\fP does not have write permission.
.IP "rmdir: \fIdirectory\fP not removed" 10
.br
This message indicates you are trying to remove a directory you don't own.