Python 3 - os.rmdir() Method

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Description

The method rmdir() removes the directory path. It works only when the directory is empty, else OSError is raised.

Syntax

Following is the syntax for rmdir() method −

os.rmdir(path)

Parameters

path − This is the path of the directory, which needs to be removed.

Return Value

This method does not return any value.

Example

The following example shows the usage of rmdir() method.

# !/usr/bin/python3
import os, sys
os.chdir("d:\\tmp")

# listing directories
print ("the dir is: %s" %os.listdir(os.getcwd()))

# removing path
os.rmdir("newdir")

# listing directories after removing directory path
print ("the dir is:" %os.listdir(os.getcwd()))

Result

When we run the above program, it produces the following result −

the dir is: [
   'Applicationdocs.docx', 'book.zip', 
   'Java Multiple Inheritance.htm', 'Java Multiple Inheritance_files', 
   'java.ppt', 'newdir', 'python2'
]

Traceback (most recent call last):
   File "test.py", line 8, in <module>
   os.rmdir("newdir")
OSError: [WinError 145] The directory is not empty: 'newdir'

The error is coming as 'newdir' directory is not empty. If 'newdir' is an empty directory, then this would produce following result −

the dir is: [
   'Applicationdocs.docx', 'book.zip', 
   'Java Multiple Inheritance.htm', 'Java Multiple Inheritance_files', 
   'java.ppt', 'newdir', 'python2'
]

the dir is: [
   'Applicationdocs.docx', 'book.zip', 
   'Java Multiple Inheritance.htm', 'Java Multiple Inheritance_files',  
   'java.ppt', 'python2'
]