Unix in a Nutshell, 4th Edition

Name

rmdir

Synopsis

    rmdir [options]directories

Delete the named directories (the directory itself, not the contents). directories are deleted from the parent directory and must be empty (if not, rm -r can be used instead). See also mkdir.

Common Option

-p, --parents

Remove directories and any intervening parent directories that become empty as a result; useful for removing subdirectory trees.

Solaris Option

-s

Suppress standard error messages caused by -p.

GNU/Linux Options

--ignore-fail-on-non-empty

Ignore failure to remove directories that are not empty.

-v, --verbose

Verbose mode; print a message for each directory as it is processed.