]>
Commit | Line | Data |
---|---|---|
fea681da MK |
1 | .\" Hey Emacs! This file is -*- nroff -*- source. |
2 | .\" | |
3 | .\" This manpage is Copyright (C) 1992 Drew Eckhardt; | |
4 | .\" 1993 Ian Jackson. | |
5 | .\" | |
6 | .\" Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this | |
7 | .\" manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are | |
8 | .\" preserved on all copies. | |
9 | .\" | |
10 | .\" Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this | |
11 | .\" manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided that the | |
12 | .\" entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a | |
13 | .\" permission notice identical to this one. | |
c13182ef | 14 | .\" |
fea681da MK |
15 | .\" Since the Linux kernel and libraries are constantly changing, this |
16 | .\" manual page may be incorrect or out-of-date. The author(s) assume no | |
17 | .\" responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from | |
18 | .\" the use of the information contained herein. The author(s) may not | |
19 | .\" have taken the same level of care in the production of this manual, | |
20 | .\" which is licensed free of charge, as they might when working | |
21 | .\" professionally. | |
c13182ef | 22 | .\" |
fea681da MK |
23 | .\" Formatted or processed versions of this manual, if unaccompanied by |
24 | .\" the source, must acknowledge the copyright and authors of this work. | |
25 | .\" | |
26 | .\" Modified 1993-07-24 by Rik Faith <faith@cs.unc.edu> | |
27 | .\" Modified 1996-09-08 by Arnt Gulbrandsen <agulbra@troll.no> | |
28 | .\" Modified 1997-01-31 by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com> | |
29 | .\" Modified 2001-05-17 by aeb | |
c11b1abf | 30 | .\" Modified 2004-06-23 by Michael Kerrisk <mtk.manpages@gmail.com> |
fea681da | 31 | .\" |
d9343c5c | 32 | .TH UNLINK 2 2004-06-23 "Linux" "Linux Programmer's Manual" |
fea681da MK |
33 | .SH NAME |
34 | unlink \- delete a name and possibly the file it refers to | |
35 | .SH SYNOPSIS | |
36 | .B #include <unistd.h> | |
37 | .sp | |
38 | .BI "int unlink(const char *" pathname ); | |
39 | .SH DESCRIPTION | |
e511ffb6 | 40 | .BR unlink () |
c13182ef MK |
41 | deletes a name from the filesystem. |
42 | If that name was the | |
fea681da MK |
43 | last link to a file and no processes have the file open the file is |
44 | deleted and the space it was using is made available for reuse. | |
45 | ||
46 | If the name was the last link to a file but any processes still have | |
47 | the file open the file will remain in existence until the last file | |
48 | descriptor referring to it is closed. | |
49 | ||
50 | If the name referred to a symbolic link the link is removed. | |
51 | ||
52 | If the name referred to a socket, fifo or device the name for it is | |
53 | removed but processes which have the object open may continue to use | |
54 | it. | |
55 | .SH "RETURN VALUE" | |
1c44bd5b MK |
56 | On success, zero is returned. |
57 | On error, \-1 is returned, and | |
fea681da MK |
58 | .I errno |
59 | is set appropriately. | |
60 | .SH ERRORS | |
61 | .TP | |
62 | .B EACCES | |
63 | Write access to the directory containing | |
64 | .I pathname | |
65 | is not allowed for the process's effective UID, or one of the | |
66 | directories in | |
0daa9e92 | 67 | .I pathname |
fea681da MK |
68 | did not allow search permission. |
69 | (See also | |
ad7cc990 | 70 | .BR path_resolution (7).) |
fea681da MK |
71 | .TP |
72 | .BR EBUSY " (not on Linux)" | |
73 | The file | |
74 | .I pathname | |
75 | cannot be unlinked because it is being used by the system | |
76 | or another process and the implementation considers this an error. | |
77 | .TP | |
78 | .B EFAULT | |
79 | .I pathname | |
80 | points outside your accessible address space. | |
81 | .TP | |
82 | .B EIO | |
83 | An I/O error occurred. | |
84 | .TP | |
85 | .B EISDIR | |
86 | .I pathname | |
87 | refers to a directory. | |
88 | (This is the non-POSIX value returned by Linux since 2.1.132.) | |
89 | .TP | |
90 | .B ELOOP | |
91 | Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating | |
92 | .IR pathname . | |
93 | .TP | |
94 | .B ENAMETOOLONG | |
95 | .IR pathname " was too long." | |
96 | .TP | |
97 | .B ENOENT | |
98 | A component in | |
99 | .I pathname | |
100 | does not exist or is a dangling symbolic link, or | |
101 | .I pathname | |
102 | is empty. | |
103 | .TP | |
104 | .B ENOMEM | |
105 | Insufficient kernel memory was available. | |
106 | .TP | |
107 | .B ENOTDIR | |
108 | A component used as a directory in | |
109 | .I pathname | |
110 | is not, in fact, a directory. | |
111 | .TP | |
112 | .B EPERM | |
113 | The system does not allow unlinking of directories, | |
114 | or unlinking of directories requires privileges that the | |
115 | current process doesn't have. | |
7bbd888b MK |
116 | (This is the POSIX prescribed error return; |
117 | as noted above, Linux returns | |
118 | .B EISDIR | |
119 | for this case.) | |
fea681da MK |
120 | .TP |
121 | .BR EPERM " (Linux only)" | |
122 | The filesystem does not allow unlinking of files. | |
123 | .TP | |
124 | .BR EPERM " or " EACCES | |
125 | The directory containing | |
126 | .I pathname | |
127 | has the sticky bit | |
128 | .RB ( S_ISVTX ) | |
129 | set and the process's effective UID is neither the UID of the file to | |
130 | be deleted nor that of the directory containing it, and | |
131 | the process is not privileged (Linux: does not have the | |
132 | .B CAP_FOWNER | |
133 | capability). | |
134 | .TP | |
135 | .B EROFS | |
136 | .I pathname | |
137 | refers to a file on a read-only filesystem. | |
138 | .SH "CONFORMING TO" | |
c13182ef | 139 | SVr4, 4.3BSD, POSIX.1-2001. |
97c1eac8 MK |
140 | .\" SVr4 documents additional error |
141 | .\" conditions EINTR, EMULTIHOP, ETXTBSY, ENOLINK. | |
fea681da MK |
142 | .SH BUGS |
143 | Infelicities in the protocol underlying NFS can cause the unexpected | |
144 | disappearance of files which are still being used. | |
145 | .SH "SEE ALSO" | |
146 | .BR rm (1), | |
147 | .BR chmod (2), | |
148 | .BR link (2), | |
149 | .BR mknod (2), | |
150 | .BR open (2), | |
fea681da MK |
151 | .BR rename (2), |
152 | .BR rmdir (2), | |
f5958902 | 153 | .BR unlinkat (2), |
fea681da | 154 | .BR mkfifo (3), |
ad7cc990 MK |
155 | .BR remove (3), |
156 | .BR path_resolution (7) |