remove - delete a name and possibly the file it refers to
#include <stdio.h>
int remove(const char *pathname);
remove deletes a name from the filesystem. It calls unlink for files,
and rmdir for directories.
If the removed 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.
On success, zero is returned. On error, -1 is returned, and errno is
set appropriately.
EFAULT pathname points outside your accessible address space.
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 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.
ENAMETOOLONG [Toc] [Back]
pathname was too long.
ENOENT A directory component in pathname does not exist or is a dangling
symbolic link.
ENOTDIR [Toc] [Back]
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.
ANSI C, SVID, AT&T, POSIX, X/OPEN, BSD 4.3
Infelicities in the protocol underlying NFS can cause the unexpected
disappearance of files which are still being used.
Under libc4 and libc5, remove was an alias for unlink (and hence would
not remove directories).
unlink(2), rename(2), open(2), rmdir(2), mknod(2), mkfifo(3), link(2),
rm(1), unlink(8)
Linux 1994-07-13 REMOVE(3)
[ Back ] | 