UNLINK(2)		  Linux Programmer's Manual		    UNLINK(2)



NAME
       unlink - delete a name and possibly the file it refers to

SYNOPSIS
       #include 

       int unlink(const char *pathname);

DESCRIPTION
       unlink  deletes	a name from the filesystem. If that name was the last
       link to a file and no processes have the file open the file is deleted
       and the space it was using is made available for reuse.

       If  the	name was the last link to a file but any processes still have
       the file open the file will remain in existence until  the  last	 file
       descriptor referring to it is closed.

       If the name referred to a symbolic link the link is removed.

       If  the	name  referred to a socket, fifo or device the name for it is
       removed but processes which have the object open may continue  to  use
       it.

RETURN VALUE
       On  success, zero is returned.  On error, -1 is returned, and errno is
       set appropriately.

ERRORS
       EACCES Write access  to	the  directory	containing  pathname  is  not
	      allowed for the process's effective uid, or one of the directo-
	      ries in pathname did not allow search (execute) permission.

       EPERM or EACCES
	      The directory containing pathname has the sticky-bit  (S_ISVTX)
	      set  and	the process's effective uid is neither the uid of the
	      file to be deleted nor that of the directory containing it.

       EPERM (Linux only)
	      The filesystem does not allow unlinking of files.

       EPERM  The system does not allow unlinking of directories, or  unlink-
	      ing of directories requires privileges that the current process
	      doesn't have.  (This is the POSIX prescribed error return.)

       EISDIR pathname refers to a directory.  (This is the  non-POSIX	value
	      returned by Linux since 2.1.132.)

       EBUSY (not on Linux)
	      The  file	 pathname cannot be unlinked because it is being used
	      by the system or another process and the implementation consid-
	      ers this an error.

       EFAULT pathname points outside your accessible address space.

       ENAMETOOLONG
	      pathname was too long.

       ENOENT A	 component  in	pathname does not exist or is a dangling sym-
	      bolic link, or pathname is empty.

       ENOTDIR
	      A component used as a directory in pathname is not, in fact,  a
	      directory.

       ENOMEM Insufficient kernel memory was available.

       EROFS  pathname refers to a file on a read-only filesystem.

       ELOOP  Too  many	 symbolic links were encountered in translating path-
	      name.

       EIO    An I/O error occurred.

CONFORMING TO
       SVr4, SVID, POSIX, X/OPEN, 4.3BSD.  SVr4	 documents  additional	error
       conditions EINTR, EMULTIHOP, ETXTBSY, ENOLINK.

BUGS
       Infelicities  in	 the protocol underlying NFS can cause the unexpected
       disappearance of files which are still being used.

SEE ALSO
       link(2), rename(2), open(2), rmdir(2), mknod(2), mkfifo(3), remove(3),
       rm(1)



Linux 2.0.30			  1997-08-21			    UNLINK(2)