NAME

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

SYNOPSIS

       #include <unistd.h>

       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  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).

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

CONFORMING TO

       SVr4, 4.3BSD, POSIX.1-2001.

BUGS

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

SEE ALSO

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

COLOPHON

       This page is part of release 3.54 of the Linux man-pages project.  A  description  of  the  project,  and
       information about reporting bugs, can be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.