.\" Copyright Andries Brouwer, Ragnar Hojland Espinosa and A. Wik, 1998.
.\"
.\" This file may be copied under the conditions described
.\" in the LDP GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE, Version 1, September 1998
.\" that should have been distributed together with this file.
.\"
.TH RMDIR 1 1998-11 "GNU fileutils 4.0"
.SH NAME
rmdir \- remove empty directories
.SH SYNOPSIS
.BI "rmdir [" options "] " directory...
.sp
POSIX options:
.B "[\-p] [\-\-]"
.sp
GNU options (shortest form):
.B [\-p]
.B [\-\-ignore\-fail\-on\-non\-empty]
.B "[\-\-help] [\-\-version] [\-\-]"
.SH DESCRIPTION
.B rmdir
removes empty directories.
.PP
If any
.I directory
argument does not refer to an existing empty directory, it is an error.
.SH "POSIX OPTIONS"
.TP
.B "\-p"
If
.I directory
includes more than one pathname component, remove it, then strip
the last component and remove the resulting directory, etc., until
all components have been removed. Thus, `rmdir \-p a/b/c' is
equivalent to `rmdir a/b/c; rmdir a/b; rmdir a'.
.TP
.B "\-\-"
Terminate option list.
.SH "GNU OPTIONS"
.TP
.B "\-\-ignore\-fail\-on\-non\-empty"
Normally
.B rmdir
will refuse to remove a directory that is not empty.  This option
causes
.B rmdir
to ignore the failure to remove a directory, if that failure is due
to the directory being non-empty.
(New in file\%utils-4.0.)
.TP
.B "\-p, \-\-parents"
As above.
.SH "GNU STANDARD OPTIONS"
.TP
.B "\-\-help"
Print a usage message on standard output and exit successfully.
.TP
.B "\-\-version"
Print version information on standard output, then exit successfully.
.TP
.B "\-\-"
Terminate option list.
.SH ENVIRONMENT
The variables LANG, LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE and LC_MESSAGES have the
usual meaning.
.SH "CONFORMING TO"
POSIX 1003.2
.SH "EXAMPLE OF USE"
The command `\fIrmdir foo\fP' will remove the directory \fIfoo\fP
if it is empty. To remove a nonempty directory, together with everything
below, use `\fIrm \-r foo\fP'.
.SH NOTES
This page describes
.B rmdir
as found in the fileutils-4.0 package;
other versions may differ slightly.