UNLINK(2)                            SysV                            UNLINK(2)



NAME
     unlink - remove directory entry

SYNOPSIS
     int unlink (path)
     char *path;

DESCRIPTION
     unlink removes the directory entry pointed to by path.

     If this entry was the last link to the file and no process has the file
     open, the system frees the space occupied by the file and the file ceases
     to exist.  If a process has the file open, the system postpones the
     removal until all references to the file have been closed.

ERRORS
     The unlink succeeds unless one or more of the following are true:

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

     [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.

     [EPERM]       The named file is a directory and the effective user ID of
                   the process is not super-user.

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

     [ETXTBSY]     The entry to be unlinked is the last link to a pure
                   procedure (shared text) file that is being executed.

     [EROFS]       The directory entry to be unlinked is part of a read-only
                   file system.

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

     [EINTR]       A signal was caught during the unlink system call.

SEE ALSO
     close(2), link(2), open(2).
     rm(1) in the SysV Command Reference.

DIAGNOSTICS
     A successful call returns 0.  A failed call returns -1 and sets errno as
     indicated under "Errors."

NOTES
     Under other implementations, unlink fails if either of the following is
     true:

     [ENOLINK]     path points to a remote machine and the link to that
                   machine is no longer active.

     [EMULTIHOP]   Components of path require hopping to multiple remote
                   machines.