unlink(2)
- NetBSD Manual Pages
UNLINK(2) NetBSD Programmer's Manual 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 de-
layed 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() succeeds unless:
[ENOTDIR] A component of the path prefix is not a directory.
[ENAMETOOLONG]
A component of a pathname exceeded {NAME_MAX} characters,
or an entire path name exceeded {PATH_MAX} characters.
[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.
[ELOOP] Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating the
pathname.
[EPERM] The named file is a directory and the effective user ID of
the process is not the super-user, or the file system con-
taining the file does not permit the use of unlink() on a
directory.
[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.
[EBUSY] The entry to be unlinked is the mount point for a mounted
file system.
[EIO] An I/O error occurred while deleting the directory entry or
deallocating the inode.
[EROFS] The named file resides on a read-only file system.
[EFAULT] path points outside the process's allocated address space.
SEE ALSO
close(2), link(2), rmdir(2), symlink(7)
STANDARDS
The unlink() function conforms to IEEE Std1003.1-1990 (``POSIX'').
HISTORY
An unlink() function call appeared in Version 6 AT&T UNIX.
NetBSD 1.4 June 4, 1993 2
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