UNLINK
Section: System Calls (2)
Index
Return to Main Contents
BSD mandoc
BSD 4
NAME
unlink
- remove directory entry
SYNOPSIS
Fd #include <unistd.h>
Ft int
Fn unlink const char *path
DESCRIPTION
The
Fn unlink
function
removes the link named by
Fa 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
Fn unlink
succeeds unless:
- Bq Er ENOTDIR
-
A component of the path prefix is not a directory.
- Bq Er ENAMETOOLONG
-
A component of a pathname exceeded
{NAME_MAX}
characters, or an entire path name exceeded
{PATH_MAX}
characters.
- Bq Er ENOENT
-
The named file does not exist.
- Bq Er EACCES
-
Search permission is denied for a component of the path prefix.
- Bq Er EACCES
-
Write permission is denied on the directory containing the link
to be removed.
- Bq Er ELOOP
-
Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating the pathname.
- Bq Er EPERM
-
The named file is a directory and the effective user ID
of the process is not the super-user.
- Bq Er 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.
- Bq Er EBUSY
-
The entry to be unlinked is the mount point for a
mounted file system.
- Bq Er EIO
-
An I/O error occurred while deleting the directory entry
or deallocating the inode.
- Bq Er EROFS
-
The named file resides on a read-only file system.
- Bq Er EFAULT
-
Fa Path
points outside the process's allocated address space.
SEE ALSO
close(2),
link(2),
rmdir(2)
symlink(7)
HISTORY
An
Fn unlink
function call appeared in
AT&T System
v6 .
Index
- NAME
-
- SYNOPSIS
-
- DESCRIPTION
-
- RETURN VALUES
-
- ERRORS
-
- SEE ALSO
-
- HISTORY
-
This document was created by
man2html,
using the manual pages.
Time: 16:28:59 GMT, April 18, 2022