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unlink(2) [bsd man page]

UNLINK(2)							System Calls Manual							 UNLINK(2)

NAME
unlink - remove directory entry SYNOPSIS
unlink(path) char *path; DESCRIPTION
Unlink removes the entry for the file path from its directory. If this entry was the last link to the file, and no process has the file open, then all resources associated with the file are reclaimed. If, however, the file was open in any process, the actual resource recla- mation is delayed until it is closed, even though the directory entry has disappeared. RETURN VALUE
Upon successful completion, a value of 0 is returned. Otherwise, a value of -1 is returned and errno is set to indicate the error. ERRORS
The unlink succeeds unless: [ENOTDIR] A component of the path prefix is not a directory. [EINVAL] The pathname contains a character with the high-order bit set. [ENAMETOOLONG] A component of a pathname exceeded 255 characters, or an entire path name exceeded 1023 characters. [ENOENT] The named file does not exist. [EACCES] Search permission is denied for a component of the path prefix. [EACCES] Write permission is denied on the directory containing the link to be removed. [ELOOP] Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating the pathname. [EPERM] The named file is a directory and the effective user ID of the process is not the super-user. [EPERM] The directory containing the file is marked sticky, and neither the containing directory nor the file to be removed are owned by the effective user ID. [EBUSY] The entry to be unlinked is the mount point for a mounted file system. [EIO] An I/O error occurred while deleting the directory entry or deallocating the inode. [EROFS] The named file resides on a read-only file system. [EFAULT] Path points outside the process's allocated address space. SEE ALSO
close(2), link(2), rmdir(2) 4th Berkeley Distribution May 22, 1985 UNLINK(2)

Check Out this Related Man Page

RMDIR(2)							System Calls Manual							  RMDIR(2)

NAME
rmdir - remove a directory file SYNOPSIS
rmdir(path) char *path; DESCRIPTION
Rmdir removes a directory file whose name is given by path. The directory must not have any entries other than "." and "..". RETURN VALUE
A 0 is returned if the remove succeeds; otherwise a -1 is returned and an error code is stored in the global location errno. ERRORS
The named file is removed unless one or more of the following are true: [ENOTDIR] A component of the path is not a directory. [EINVAL] The pathname contains a character with the high-order bit set. [ENAMETOOLONG] A component of a pathname exceeded 255 characters, or an entire path name exceeded 1023 characters. [ENOENT] The named directory does not exist. [ELOOP] Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating the pathname. [ENOTEMPTY] The named directory contains files other than ``.'' and ``..'' in it. [EACCES] Search permission is denied for a component of the path prefix. [EACCES] Write permission is denied on the directory containing the link to be removed. [EPERM] The directory containing the directory to be removed is marked sticky, and neither the containing directory nor the direc- tory to be removed are owned by the effective user ID. [EBUSY] The directory to be removed is the mount point for a mounted file system. [EIO] An I/O error occurred while deleting the directory entry or deallocating the inode. [EROFS] The directory entry to be removed resides on a read-only file system. [EFAULT] Path points outside the process's allocated address space. SEE ALSO
mkdir(2), unlink(2) 4.2 Berkeley Distribution August 26, 1985 RMDIR(2)
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