unlink(2) BSD System Calls Manual unlink(2)
NAME
unlink -- remove directory entry
SYNOPSIS
#include <unistd.h>
int
unlink(const char *path);
DESCRIPTION
The unlink() function removes the link named by path from its directory
and decrements the link count of the file which was referenced by the
link. If that decrement reduces the link count of the file to zero, and
no process has the file open, then all resources associated with the file
are reclaimed. If one or more process have the file open when the last
link is removed, the link is removed, but the removal of the file is
delayed until all references to it have been closed.
RETURN VALUES
Upon successful completion, a value of 0 is returned. Otherwise, a value
of -1 is returned and errno is set to indicate the error.
ERRORS
The unlink() system call will fail if:
[EACCES] Search permission is denied for a component of the
path prefix.
[EACCES] Write permission is denied on the directory containing
the link to be removed.
[EBUSY] The entry to be unlinked is the mount point for a
mounted file system.
[EBUSY] The file named by the path argument cannot be unlinked
because it is being used by the system or by another
process.
[EFAULT] Path points outside the process's allocated address
space.
[EIO] An I/O error occurs while deleting the directory entry
or deallocating the inode.
[ELOOP] Too many symbolic links are encountered in translating
the pathname. This is taken to be indicative of a
looping symbolic link.
[ENAMETOOLONG] A component of a pathname exceeds {NAME_MAX} charac-
ters, or an entire path name exceeds {PATH_MAX} char-
acters (possibly as a result of expanding a symlink).
[ENOENT] The named file does not exist.
[ENOTDIR] A component of the path prefix is not a directory.
[EPERM] The named file is a directory and the effective user
ID of the process is not the super-user.
[EPERM] The directory containing the file is marked sticky,
and neither the containing directory nor the file to
be removed are owned by the effective user ID.
[EROFS] The named file resides on a read-only file system.
SEE ALSO
close(2), link(2), rmdir(2), symlink(7)
HISTORY
An unlink() function call appeared in Version 6 AT&T UNIX.
4th Berkeley Distribution June 4, 1993 4th Berkeley Distribution
Mac OS X 10.9.1 - Generated Mon Jan 6 18:35:10 CST 2014