NAME

       unlinkat - remove a directory entry relative to a directory file descriptor

SYNOPSIS

       #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:
               _XOPEN_SOURCE >= 700 || _POSIX_C_SOURCE >= 200809L
           Before glibc 2.10:
               _ATFILE_SOURCE

DESCRIPTION

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

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

RETURN VALUE

       On  success,  unlinkat() returns 0.  On error, -1 is returned and errno is set to indicate
       the error.

ERRORS

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

       EBADF  dirfd is not a valid file descriptor.

       EINVAL An invalid flag value was 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

       POSIX.1-2008.  A similar system call exists on Solaris.

NOTES

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

SEE ALSO

       openat(2), rmdir(2), unlink(2), path_resolution(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/.