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GNU Core-utils

12.6 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 option. Also see 2. 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 section 11.5 rm: Remove files or directories, for how to remove non-empty directories (recursively).