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 path-
	      name did not allow search permission.  (See also path_resolution(7).)

       EBUSY  The  file pathname cannot be unlinked because it is being used by the system or another process; for example, it is a mount point or
	      the NFS client software created it to represent an active but otherwise nameless inode ("NFS silly renamed").

       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 calling 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  capabil-
	      ity).

       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 3.44 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								    2011-09-15								 UNLINK(2)