RMDIR(2) System Calls Manual RMDIR(2)

rmdir — remove a directory file

#include <unistd.h>

int
rmdir(const char *path);

() removes a directory file whose name is given by path. The directory must not have any entries other than ‘.’ and ‘..’.

A 0 is returned if the remove succeeds; otherwise a -1 is returned and an error code is stored in the global location errno.

The named file is removed unless:

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Search permission is denied for a component of the path prefix.
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Write permission is denied on the directory containing the link to be removed.
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The directory to be removed is the mount point for a mounted file system.
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Path points outside the process's allocated address space.
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An I/O error occurs while deleting the directory entry or deallocating the inode.
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Too many symbolic links are encountered in translating the pathname. This is taken to be indicative of a looping symbolic link.
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A component of a pathname (possibly expanded by a symbolic link) exceeds {NAME_MAX} characters, or an entire path name exceeded {PATH_MAX} characters.
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The named directory does not exist.
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A component of the path is not a directory.
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The named directory contains files other than ‘.’ and ‘..’ in it.
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The directory containing the directory to be removed is marked sticky, and neither the containing directory nor the directory to be removed are owned by the effective user ID.
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The directory entry to be removed resides on a read-only file system.

mkdir(2), unlink(2), unlinkat(2)

The rmdir() function call appeared in 4.2BSD.

June 4, 1993 BSD 4.2