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NAME

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

SYNOPSIS

       #include <unistd.h>

       int unlink(const char *pathname);

       #include <fcntl.h>           /* Definition of AT_* constants */
       #include <unistd.h>

       int unlinkat(int dirfd, const char *pathname, int flags);

   Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see feature_test_macros(7)):

       unlinkat():
           Since glibc 2.10:
               _POSIX_C_SOURCE >= 200809L
           Before glibc 2.10:
               _ATFILE_SOURCE

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.

   unlinkat()
       The unlinkat() system call operates in exactly the same way as either unlink() or rmdir(2)
       (depending on whether or  not  flags  includes  the  AT_REMOVEDIR  flag)  except  for  the
       differences described here.

       If  the  pathname  given  in  pathname is relative, then it is interpreted relative to the
       directory referred to by the file descriptor dirfd (rather than relative  to  the  current
       working  directory  of  the  calling  process,  as  is done by unlink() and rmdir(2) for a
       relative pathname).

       If the pathname given in pathname is relative and dirfd is  the  special  value  AT_FDCWD,
       then  pathname  is  interpreted  relative  to the current working directory of the calling
       process (like unlink() and rmdir(2)).

       If the pathname given in pathname is absolute, then dirfd is ignored.

       flags is a bit mask that can either be specified as 0, or by ORing  together  flag  values
       that control the operation of unlinkat().  Currently, only one such flag is defined:

       AT_REMOVEDIR
              By  default,  unlinkat()  performs  the equivalent of unlink() on pathname.  If the
              AT_REMOVEDIR flag is  specified,  then  performs  the  equivalent  of  rmdir(2)  on
              pathname.

       See openat(2) for an explanation of the need for unlinkat().

RETURN VALUE

       On  success, zero is returned.  On error, -1 is returned, and errno is set to indicate the
       error.

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
              permission.  (See also path_resolution(7).)

       EBUSY  The file pathname cannot be unlinked because it is being  used  by  the  system  or
              another  process;  for  example,  it  is  a  mount point or the NFS client software
              created it to  represent  an  active  but  otherwise  nameless  inode  ("NFS  silly
              renamed").

       EFAULT pathname points outside your accessible address space.

       EIO    An I/O error occurred.

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

       ELOOP  Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating pathname.

       ENAMETOOLONG
              pathname was too long.

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

       ENOMEM Insufficient kernel memory was available.

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

       EPERM  The  system  does  not  allow unlinking of directories, or unlinking of directories
              requires privileges that the calling process doesn't  have.   (This  is  the  POSIX
              prescribed error return; as noted above, Linux returns EISDIR for this case.)

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

       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,  and the process is not privileged (Linux: does not
              have the CAP_FOWNER capability).

       EPERM  The file to be unlinked is marked immutable or append-only.  (See ioctl_iflags(2).)

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

       The same errors that occur for unlink() and rmdir(2) can also occur for  unlinkat().   The
       following additional errors can occur for unlinkat():

       EBADF  pathname is relative but dirfd is neither AT_FDCWD nor a valid file descriptor.

       EINVAL An invalid flag value was specified in flags.

       EISDIR pathname refers to a directory, and AT_REMOVEDIR was not specified in flags.

       ENOTDIR
              pathname  is relative and dirfd is a file descriptor referring to a file other than
              a directory.

VERSIONS

       unlinkat() was added to Linux in kernel 2.6.16; library support  was  added  to  glibc  in
       version 2.4.

CONFORMING TO

       unlink(): SVr4, 4.3BSD, POSIX.1-2001, POSIX.1-2008.

       unlinkat(): POSIX.1-2008.

NOTES

   Glibc notes
       On older kernels where unlinkat() is unavailable, the glibc wrapper function falls back to
       the use of unlink() or rmdir(2).  When pathname is a relative pathname, glibc constructs a
       pathname  based  on  the  symbolic  link  in  /proc/self/fd  that corresponds to the dirfd
       argument.

BUGS

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

SEE ALSO

       rm(1),  unlink(1),  chmod(2),  link(2), mknod(2), open(2), rename(2), rmdir(2), mkfifo(3),
       remove(3), path_resolution(7), symlink(7)

COLOPHON

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       project,  information  about  reporting  bugs, and the latest version of this page, can be
       found at https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.