rmdir / rd

Example ofrmdir
Original author(s)	Ken Thompson,Dennis Ritchie (AT&T Bell Laboratories)
Developer(s)	Variousopen-source andcommercial developers
Operating system	Unix,Unix-like,DOS,MSX-DOS,FlexOS,OS/2,Windows,ReactOS,KolibriOS
Platform	Cross-platform
Type	Command

In computing,rmdir (orrd) is acommand which will remove an emptydirectory on variousoperating systems.

The command is available inUnix (e.g.macOS,Solaris,AIX,HP-UX),Unix-like (e.g.FreeBSD,Linux),DOS,Digital ResearchFlexOS,^[1]IBMOS/2,^[2]Microsoft Windows^[3] orReactOS^[4] operating systems. OnMS-DOS, the command is available in versions 2 and later.^[5]DR DOS 6.0 also includes an implementation of thermdir command.^[6]

It is also available in theopen source MS-DOSemulatorDOSBox and inKolibriOS.^[7] Thenumerical computing environmentsMATLAB andGNU Octave include anrmdir function with similar functionality.^[8][9]

Normal usage is straightforward:

$rmdirname_of_directory

where name_of_directory corresponds with the name of the directory one wishes to delete. There are options to this command such as-p in Unix which removes parent directories if they are also empty.

For example:

$rmdir-pfoo/bar/baz

will first remove baz/, then bar/ and finally foo/ thus removing the entire directory tree specified in the command argument.

rmdir will not remove a directory if it is not empty in UNIX. Therm command will remove a directory and all its contents recursively. For example:

$rm-rfoo/bar/baz$rm-rffoo/bar/baz

Normal usage is identical to Unix-like operating systems:

>rmdir name_of_directory

The equivalent command inMS-DOS and earlier (non-NT-based) versions of Microsoft Windows for deleting non-empty directories isdeltree.

In later version of Windows:

>rd /s directory_name

Windows based on theNT kernel (XP, Vista, 7, 8, Server 2003/2008) arecase insensitive, just like their earlier predecessors, unless two files of the same name and different case exist. Then case sensitivity applies when selecting which file to use, or if the case does not match either file, one may be chosen by Windows.

Having two files named the same with different case sensitivity is allowed either whenWindows Services for Unix is installed or when theWindows Registry settings are set to allow it.

An example of the security risk is:

Using rd/rmdir and two directories with the same name and different case sensitivities exist, one of which contains valid data and/or programs, and the other contains incriminating materials and/ormalware. If rd/rmdir gets executed without regard to case sensitivity and Windows chooses the legitimate folder to delete, the only folder left is the undesired one. Windows then uses this folder instead of the previously legitimate one to execute programs, and one may be led to believe it contains legitimate data.

• List of Unix commands
• List of DOS commands

• Cooper, Jim (2001).Special Edition Using MS-DOS 6.22, Third Edition.Que Publishing.ISBN 978-0789725738.
• Kathy Ivens; Brian Proffit (1993).OS/2 Inside & Out.Osborne McGraw-Hill.ISBN 978-0078818714.
• Stanek, William R. (2008).Windows Command-Line Administrator's Pocket Consultant, 2nd Edition.Microsoft Press.ISBN 978-0735622623.
• McElhearn, Kirk (2006).The Mac OS X Command Line: Unix Under the Hood.John Wiley & Sons.ISBN 978-0470113851.

Wikibooks has a book on the topic of:Guide to Windows Commands

The WikibookGuide to Unix has a page on the topic of:Commands

• rmdir – Shell and Utilities Reference,The Single UNIX Specification, Version 4 fromThe Open Group
• rmdir | Microsoft Docs

• Windows commands
• Unix SUS2008 utilities
• Unix file system-related software
• Internal DOS commands
• MSX-DOS commands
• OS/2 commands
• ReactOS commands
• IBM i Qshell commands
• Windows administration

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata