diff --git a/builtin-apply.c b/builtin-apply.c
index 20bef1f21d3..70c9f93554c 100644
--- a/builtin-apply.c
+++ b/builtin-apply.c
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@
 #include "delta.h"
 #include "builtin.h"
 #include "string-list.h"
+#include "dir.h"
 
 /*
  *  --check turns on checking that the working tree matches the
@@ -2735,15 +2736,7 @@ static void remove_file(struct patch *patch, int rmdir_empty)
 				warning("unable to remove submodule %s",
 					patch->old_name);
 		} else if (!unlink(patch->old_name) && rmdir_empty) {
-			char *name = xstrdup(patch->old_name);
-			char *end = strrchr(name, '/');
-			while (end) {
-				*end = 0;
-				if (rmdir(name))
-					break;
-				end = strrchr(name, '/');
-			}
-			free(name);
+			remove_path(patch->old_name);
 		}
 	}
 }
diff --git a/builtin-merge-recursive.c b/builtin-merge-recursive.c
index f628a62751d..b9738655adc 100644
--- a/builtin-merge-recursive.c
+++ b/builtin-merge-recursive.c
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@
 #include "ll-merge.h"
 #include "interpolate.h"
 #include "attr.h"
+#include "dir.h"
 #include "merge-recursive.h"
 
 static int subtree_merge;
@@ -416,24 +417,6 @@ static int update_stages(const char *path, struct diff_filespec *o,
 	return 0;
 }
 
-static int remove_path(const char *name)
-{
-	int ret;
-	char *slash, *dirs;
-
-	ret = unlink(name);
-	if (ret)
-		return ret;
-	dirs = xstrdup(name);
-	while ((slash = strrchr(name, '/'))) {
-		*slash = '\0';
-		if (rmdir(name) != 0)
-			break;
-	}
-	free(dirs);
-	return ret;
-}
-
 static int remove_file(int clean, const char *path, int no_wd)
 {
 	int update_cache = index_only || clean;
@@ -444,7 +427,7 @@ static int remove_file(int clean, const char *path, int no_wd)
 			return -1;
 	}
 	if (update_working_directory) {
-		if (remove_path(path) && errno != ENOENT)
+		if (remove_path(path))
 			return -1;
 	}
 	return 0;
diff --git a/builtin-rm.c b/builtin-rm.c
index fdac34f2423..50ae6d54011 100644
--- a/builtin-rm.c
+++ b/builtin-rm.c
@@ -29,26 +29,6 @@ static void add_list(const char *name)
 	list.name[list.nr++] = name;
 }
 
-static int remove_file(const char *name)
-{
-	int ret;
-	char *slash;
-
-	ret = unlink(name);
-	if (ret && errno == ENOENT)
-		/* The user has removed it from the filesystem by hand */
-		ret = errno = 0;
-
-	if (!ret && (slash = strrchr(name, '/'))) {
-		char *n = xstrdup(name);
-		do {
-			n[slash - name] = 0;
-			name = n;
-		} while (!rmdir(name) && (slash = strrchr(name, '/')));
-	}
-	return ret;
-}
-
 static int check_local_mod(unsigned char *head, int index_only)
 {
 	/* items in list are already sorted in the cache order,
@@ -239,7 +219,7 @@ int cmd_rm(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
 		int removed = 0;
 		for (i = 0; i < list.nr; i++) {
 			const char *path = list.name[i];
-			if (!remove_file(path)) {
+			if (!remove_path(path)) {
 				removed = 1;
 				continue;
 			}