UNLINK(2)

NAME
unlink - remove directory entry

SYNOPSIS
#include <unistd.h>
int
unlink(const char *path);

DESCRIPTION
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
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() system call will fail if:

[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.

[EBUSY]
    The entry to be unlinked is the mount point for a mounted file system.

[EBUSY]
    The file named by the path argument cannot be unlinked because it is being used by the system or by another process.

[EFAULT]
    Path points outside the process's allocated address space.

[EIO]
    An I/O error occurs while deleting the directory entry or deallocating the inode.

[ELOOP]
    Too many symbolic links are encountered in translating the pathname. This is taken to be indicative of a looping symbolic link.

[ENAMETOOLONG]
    A component of a pathname exceeds {NAME_MAX} characters, or an entire path name exceeds {PATH_MAX} characters (possibly as a result of expanding a symlink).

[ENOENT]
    The named file does not exist.

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

[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.

[EROFS]
    The named file resides on a read-only file system.

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

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