NAME    [Toc]    [Back]

     unlink - remove directory entry

LIBRARY    [Toc]    [Back]

     Standard C Library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS    [Toc]    [Back]

     #include <unistd.h>

     int
     unlink(const char *path);

DESCRIPTION    [Toc]    [Back]

     The unlink() function removes the link named by path from its directory
     and decrements the link count of the file which was referenced by the
     link.  If that decrement reduces the link count of the file to zero, and
     no process has the file open, then all resources associated with the file
     are reclaimed.  If one or more process have the file open when the last
     link is removed, the link is removed, but the removal of the file is
     delayed until all references to it have been closed.

RETURN VALUES    [Toc]    [Back]

     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    [Toc]    [Back]

     The unlink() succeeds unless:

     [ENOTDIR]          A component of the path prefix is not a directory.

     [ENAMETOOLONG]     A component of a pathname exceeded {NAME_MAX} characters,
 or an entire path name exceeded {PATH_MAX} characters.


     [ENOENT]           The named file does not exist.

     [EACCES]           Search permission is denied for a component of the
                        path prefix, or 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, the file system
 containing the file does not permit the use of
                        unlink() on a directory, or 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    [Toc]    [Back]

     close(2), link(2), rmdir(2), symlink(7)

STANDARDS    [Toc]    [Back]

     The unlink() function conforms to ISO/IEC 9945-1:1990 (``POSIX.1'').

HISTORY    [Toc]    [Back]

     An unlink() function call appeared in Version 6 AT&T UNIX.

BSD                              June 4, 1993                              BSD