rmdir Command in Linux With Examples

The rmdir command in Linux is used to remove empty directories. It only works for directories that are empty, and if you try to remove a directory with content, it will fail.

Here are some examples of how to use the rmdir command:

1. Basic Usage: Remove an Empty Directory

To remove an empty directory, simply run:

rmdir directory_name

Example:

rmdir myfolder

This will remove the myfolder directory if it is empty.

2. Remove Multiple Empty Directories

You can remove multiple empty directories at once by providing their names:

rmdir dir1 dir2 dir3

Example:

rmdir folder1 folder2 folder3

This will remove all three directories if they are empty.

3. Using -p Option: Remove Empty Parent Directories

The -p option will remove a directory and its parent directories if they are empty.

rmdir -p parent/child/grandchild

Example:

rmdir -p /home/user/Documents/emptyfolder/emptydir

If the emptyfolder and emptydir are empty, this will remove them and their parent directories.

4. Error When Directory is Not Empty

If the directory is not empty, rmdir will give an error:

rmdir nonemptyfolder

Output:

rmdir: failed to remove 'nonemptyfolder': Directory not empty

5. Check if Directory is Empty

Before removing a directory, you might want to confirm whether it’s empty. You can use ls or find:

ls emptyfolder

If it lists files, the directory is not empty. If nothing shows, it’s empty, and you can remove it with rmdir.

Key Points:

• rmdir only removes empty directories.
• Use -p to remove a directory and its empty parents.
• To delete non-empty directories, you would use rm -r (recursive) instead of rmdir.