unlinkat(2) [debian man page]

UNLINKAT(2)						     Linux Programmer's Manual						       UNLINKAT(2)

NAME

       unlinkat - remove a directory entry relative to a directory file descriptor

SYNOPSIS

       #include <fcntl.h> /* Definition of AT_* constants */
       #include <unistd.h>

       int unlinkat(int dirfd, const char *pathname, int flags);

   Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see feature_test_macros(7)):

       unlinkat():
	   Since glibc 2.10:
	       _XOPEN_SOURCE >= 700 || _POSIX_C_SOURCE >= 200809L
	   Before glibc 2.10:
	       _ATFILE_SOURCE

DESCRIPTION

       The unlinkat() system call operates in exactly the same way as either unlink(2) or rmdir(2) (depending on whether or not flags includes the
       AT_REMOVEDIR flag) except for the differences described in this manual page.

       If the pathname given in pathname is relative, then it is interpreted relative to the directory referred to by the  file  descriptor  dirfd
       (rather	than  relative	to the current working directory of the calling process, as is done by unlink(2) and rmdir(2) for a relative path-
       name).

       If the pathname given in pathname is relative and dirfd is the special value AT_FDCWD, then pathname is interpreted relative to the current
       working directory of the calling process (like unlink(2) and rmdir(2)).

       If the pathname given in pathname is absolute, then dirfd is ignored.

       flags  is  a  bit  mask that can either be specified as 0, or by ORing together flag values that control the operation of unlinkat().  Cur-
       rently only one such flags is defined:

       AT_REMOVEDIR
	      By default, unlinkat() performs the equivalent of unlink(2) on pathname.	If the AT_REMOVEDIR flag is specified, then  performs  the
	      equivalent of rmdir(2) on pathname.

RETURN VALUE

       On success, unlinkat() returns 0.  On error, -1 is returned and errno is set to indicate the error.

ERRORS

       The  same  errors  that	occur  for  unlink(2)  and  rmdir(2) can also occur for unlinkat().  The following additional errors can occur for
       unlinkat():

       EBADF  dirfd is not a valid file descriptor.

       EINVAL An invalid flag value was specified in flags.

       ENOTDIR
	      pathname is relative and dirfd is a file descriptor referring to a file other than a directory.

VERSIONS

       unlinkat() was added to Linux in kernel 2.6.16; library support was added to glibc in version 2.4.

CONFORMING TO

       POSIX.1-2008.  A similar system call exists on Solaris.

NOTES

       See openat(2) for an explanation of the need for unlinkat().

SEE ALSO

       openat(2), rmdir(2), unlink(2), path_resolution(7)

COLOPHON

       This page is part of release 3.44 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								    2012-05-04							       UNLINKAT(2)