unlink(2)                                               unlink(2)



NAME
     unlink - remove directory entry

SYNOPSIS
     int unlink(path)
     char *path;

DESCRIPTION
     unlink removes the directory entry named by the pathname
     referenced by path.

     When all links to a file have been removed and no process
     has the file open, the space occupied by the file is freed
     and the file ceases to exist.  If one or more processes have
     the file open when the last link is removed, the removal is
     postponed until all references to the file have been closed.

STATUS MESSAGES AND 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.

     The named file is unlinked unless one or more of the
     following is true:

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

     EPERM
          path is a directory and the effective user ID is not
          root.

     ENAMETOOLONG
          A component of a pathname exceeded NAME_MAX characters,
          or an entire pathname exceeded PATH_MAX.

     ELOOP
          Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating
          a pathname.

     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.

     EBUSY



January 1992                                                    1

unlink(2)                                               unlink(2)



          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.

             Note:  If you are running an NFS system and you
             are accessing a shared binary remotely, it is
             possible that you will not get this errno.


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

     EFAULT
          path points outside the process's allocated address
          space.

     ENOTEMPTY
          path is a directory that contains other files besides
          ``.'' and ``..'' files.

SEE ALSO
     close(2), link(2), open(2), rmdir(2)

     rm(1), rmdir(1) in A/UX Command Reference



























2                                                    January 1992