man3/remove.3

   1 .\" This file is derived from unlink.2, which has the following copyright:
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   4 .\" This manpage is Copyright (C) 1992 Drew Eckhardt;
   5 .\"                               1993 Ian Jackson.
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  27 .\"
  28 .\" Edited into remove.3 shape by:
  29 .\" Graeme W. Wilford (G.Wilford@ee.surrey.ac.uk) on 13th July 1994
  30 .\"
  31 .TH REMOVE 3 2008-12-03 "GNU" "Linux Programmer's Manual"
  32 .SH NAME
  33 remove \- remove a file or directory
  34 .SH SYNOPSIS
  35 .B #include <stdio.h>
  36 .sp
  37 .BI "int remove(const char *" pathname );
  38 .SH DESCRIPTION
  39 .BR remove ()
  40 deletes a name from the file system.
  41 It calls
  42 .BR unlink (2)
  43 for files, and
  44 .BR rmdir (2)
  45 for directories.
  46
  47 If the removed name was the
  48 last link to a file and no processes have the file open, the file is
  49 deleted and the space it was using is made available for reuse.
  50
  51 If the name was the last link to a file,
  52 but any processes still have the file open,
  53 the file will remain in existence until the last file
  54 descriptor referring to it is closed.
  55
  56 If the name referred to a symbolic link, the link is removed.
  57
  58 If the name referred to a socket, FIFO, or device, the name is removed,
  59 but processes which have the object open may continue to use it.
  60 .SH RETURN VALUE
  61 On success, zero is returned.
  62 On error, \-1 is returned, and
  63 .I errno
  64 is set appropriately.
  65 .SH ERRORS
  66 The errors that occur are those for
  67 .BR unlink (2)
  68 and
  69 .BR rmdir (2).
  70 .SH CONFORMING TO
  71 C89, C99, 4.3BSD, POSIX.1-2001.
  72 .SH NOTES
  73 Under libc4 and libc5,
  74 .BR remove ()
  75 was an alias for
  76 .BR unlink (2)
  77 (and hence would not remove directories).
  78 .SH BUGS
  79 Infelicities in the protocol underlying NFS can cause the unexpected
  80 disappearance of files which are still being used.
  81 .SH SEE ALSO
  82 .BR rm (1),
  83 .BR unlink (1),
  84 .BR link (2),
  85 .BR mknod (2),
  86 .BR open (2),
  87 .BR rename (2),
  88 .BR rmdir (2),
  89 .BR unlink (2),
  90 .BR mkfifo (3),
  91 .BR symlink (7)