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UNLINK
!!!UNLINK
NAME
SYNOPSIS
DESCRIPTION
RETURN VALUE
ERRORS
CONFORMING TO
BUGS
SEE ALSO
----
!!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
directories 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
unlinking 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 considers this an error.


__EFAULT__


''pathname'' points outside your accessible address
space.


__ENAMETOOLONG__


''pathname'' was too long.


__ENOENT__


A directory component in ''pathname'' does not exist or
is a dangling symbolic link.


__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
''pathname''.


__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)
----

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Last edited on Tuesday, June 4, 2002 12:23:49 am by "perry"

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