UNLINK(2) UNLINK(2)
NAME
unlink - remove directory entry
SYNOPSIS
int unlink (path)
char *path;
DESCRIPTION
unlink removes the directory entry named by the path name
pointed to by path.
The named file is unlinked 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.
[EACCES] The parent directory has the sticky bit set
and
the file is not writable by the user and
the user does not own the parent directory
and
the user does not own the file and
the user is not superuser
[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.
Page 1 May 1989
UNLINK(2) UNLINK(2)
[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's allocated
address space.
[EINTR] A signal was caught during the unlink system
call.
[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to that machine is no longer active.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.
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.
SEE ALSO
close(2), link(2), open(2).
rm(1) in the User's Reference Manual.
DIAGNOSTICS
Upon successful completion, a value of 0 is returned.
Otherwise, a value of -1 is returned and errno is set to
indicate the error.
Page 2 May 1989