UNLINK(2)                                                            UNLINK(2)



NAME
       unlink - remove directory entry

SYNOPSIS
       unlink(path)
       char *path;

DESCRIPTION
       _U_n_l_i_n_k removes the entry for the file _p_a_t_h from its directory.  If this
       entry was the last link to the file, and no process has the file  open,
       then  all  resources  associated with the file are reclaimed.  If, how‐
       ever, the file was open in any process, the actual resource reclamation
       is delayed until it is closed, even though the directory entry has dis‐
       appeared.

RETURN VALUE
       Upon successful completion, a value of 0  is  returned.   Otherwise,  a
       value of -1 is returned and _e_r_r_n_o is set to indicate the error.

ERRORS
       The _u_n_l_i_n_k succeeds unless:

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

       [EINVAL]       The  pathname  contains  a character with the high-order
                      bit set.

       [ENAMETOOLONG] A component of a pathname exceeded 255 characters, or an
                      entire path name exceeded 1023 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.

       [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]       _P_a_t_h  points  outside  the  process’s  allocated address
                      space.

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



4th Berkeley Distribution        May 22, 1985                        UNLINK(2)