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[thirdparty/man-pages.git] / man3 / remove.3

.\" This file is derived from unlink.2, which has the following copyright:
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.\" --snip--
.\" This manpage is Copyright (C) 1992 Drew Eckhardt;
.\"                               1993 Ian Jackson.
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.\" Edited into remove.3 shape by:
.\" Graeme W. Wilford (G.Wilford@ee.surrey.ac.uk) on 13th July 1994
.\"
.TH REMOVE 3 1994-07-13 Linux "GNU"
.SH NAME
remove \- delete a name and possibly the file it refers to
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B #include <stdio.h>
.sp
.BI "int remove(const char *" pathname );
.SH DESCRIPTION
.BR remove ()
deletes a name from the filesystem.
It calls
.BR unlink ()
for files, and
.BR 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.
.SH "RETURN VALUE"
On success, zero is returned.
On error, \-1 is returned, and
.I errno
is set appropriately.
.SH ERRORS
The errors that occur are those for
.BR unlink (2)
and
.BR rmdir (2).
.SH "CONFORMING TO"
C89, C99, 4.3BSD, POSIX.1-2001.
.SH BUGS
Infelicities in the protocol underlying NFS can cause the unexpected
disappearance of files which are still being used.
.SH NOTE
Under libc4 and libc5,
.BR remove ()
was an alias for
.BR unlink ()
(and hence would not remove directories).
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.BR rm (1),
.BR link (2),
.BR mknod (2),
.BR open (2),
.BR rename (2),
.BR rmdir (2),
.BR unlink (2),
.BR mkfifo (3),
.BR unlink (8)