UNLINK(2)                            BSD                             UNLINK(2)



NAME
     unlink - remove directory entry

SYNOPSIS
     unlink(path)
     char *path;

DESCRIPTION
     unlink removes the entry for the file path from its directory.  If this
     entry was the last link to the file and no process has the file open, the
     system reclaims all resources associated with the file.  If a process has
     the file open, the system waits until the file is closed before
     reclaiming resources, even though the directory entry has disappeared.

ERRORS
     The unlink succeeds unless any of the following are true:

     [ENOTDIR]        A component of the path prefix is not a directory.

     [ENAMETOOLONG]   A component of a pathname exceeded 255 characters, or an
                      entire pathname exceeded 1023 characters.

     [ENOENT]         The named file does not exist.

     [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.

     [ELOOP]          Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating
                      the pathname.

     [EPERM]          The named file is a directory and the effective user ID
                      of the process is not the super-user.

     [EBUSY]          The entry to be unlinked is the mount point for a
                      mounted file system.

     [EIO]            An I/O error occurred while deleting the directory entry
                      or deallocating the inode.

     [EROFS]          The named file resides on a read-only file system.

     [EFAULT]         path points outside the process' allocated address
                      space.

SEE ALSO
     close(2), link(2), rmdir(2)

DIAGNOSTICS
     A successful call returns 0.  A failed call returns -1 and sets errno as
     indicated under "Errors."

NOTES
     Under other implementations, unlink fails if either of the following is
     true:

     [EINVAL]         The pathname contains a character with the high-order
                      bit set.

     [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.