UNLINK(2)                                           Linux Programmer's Manual                                          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 file system.  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 permission.  (See also path_resolution(7).)

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

       EFAULT pathname points outside your accessible address space.

       EIO    An I/O error occurred.

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

       ELOOP  Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating pathname.

       ENAMETOOLONG
              pathname was too long.

       ENOENT A component in pathname does not exist or is a dangling symbolic link, or pathname is empty.

       ENOMEM Insufficient kernel memory was available.

       ENOTDIR
              A component used as a directory in pathname is not, in fact, a directory.

       EPERM  The system does not allow unlinking of directories, or unlinking of directories requires privileges that the call-
              ing  process  doesn't  have.  (This is the POSIX prescribed error return; as noted above, Linux returns EISDIR for
              this case.)

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

       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, and the process is not privileged (Linux:
              does not have the CAP_FOWNER capability).

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

CONFORMING TO
       SVr4, 4.3BSD, POSIX.1-2001.

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

SEE ALSO
       rm(1), chmod(2), link(2), mknod(2), open(2), rename(2), rmdir(2), unlinkat(2), mkfifo(3), remove(3),  path_resolution(7),
       symlink(7)

COLOPHON
       This  page  is  part of release 3.25 of the Linux man-pages project.  A description of the project, and information about
       reporting bugs, can be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.



Linux                                                      2004-06-23                                                  UNLINK(2)