unlink (2)

NAME

       unlink - delete a name and possibly the file it refers to

SYNOPSIS

       #include <unistd.h>

       int unlink(const char *pathname);

DESCRIPTION

       unlink  deletes  a  name from the filesystem. If that name was the last
       link to a file and no processes have the file open the file is  deleted
       and the space it was using is made available for reuse.

       If  the  name  was the last link to a file but any processes still have
       the file open the file will remain in existence  until  the  last  file
       descriptor referring to it is closed.

       If the name referred to a symbolic link the link is removed.

       If  the  name  referred  to a socket, fifo or device the name for it is
       removed but processes which have the object open may  continue  to  use
       it.

RETURN VALUE

       On  success,  zero is returned.  On error, -1 is returned, and errno is
       set appropriately.

ERRORS

       EACCES Write access to the directory containing pathname is not allowed
              for  the  process's  effective uid, or one of the directories in
              pathname did not allow search (execute) permission.

       EPERM or EACCES
              The directory containing pathname has the  sticky-bit  (S_ISVTX)
              set  and  the  process's effective uid is neither the uid of the
              file to be deleted nor that of the directory containing it.

       EPERM (Linux only)
              The filesystem does not allow unlinking of files.

       EPERM  The system does not allow unlinking of directories, or unlinking
              of  directories  requires  privileges  that  the current process
              doesn't have.  (This is the POSIX prescribed error return.)

       EISDIR pathname refers to a directory.  (This is  the  non-POSIX  value
              returned by Linux since 2.1.132.)

       EBUSY (not on Linux)
              The file pathname cannot be unlinked because it is being used by
              the system or another process and the  implementation  considers
              this an error.

       EFAULT pathname points outside your accessible address space.

       ENAMETOOLONG
       ENOMEM Insufficient kernel memory was available.

       EROFS  pathname refers to a file on a read-only filesystem.

       ELOOP  Too  many  symbolic  links were encountered in translating path-
              name.

       EIO    An I/O error occurred.

CONFORMING TO

       SVr4, SVID, POSIX, X/OPEN, 4.3BSD.   SVr4  documents  additional  error
       conditions EINTR, EMULTIHOP, ETXTBSY, ENOLINK.

BUGS

       Infelicities  in  the  protocol underlying NFS can cause the unexpected
       disappearance of files which are still being used.

SEE ALSO

       link(2), rename(2), open(2), rmdir(2), mknod(2), mkfifo(3),  remove(3),
       rm(1)

Linux 2.0.30                      1997-08-21                         unlink(2)