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unlink(2)

NAME

     unlink -- remove directory entry

LIBRARY

     Standard C Library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS

     #include <unistd.h>

     int
     unlink(const char *path);

DESCRIPTION

     The unlink() system call removes the link named by path from its direc-
     tory 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.  The path argument
     may not be a directory.

RETURN VALUES

     The unlink() function returns the value 0 if successful; otherwise the
     value -1 is returned and the global variable errno is set to indicate the
     error.

ERRORS

     The unlink() succeeds unless:

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

     [ENAMETOOLONG]	A component of a pathname exceeded 255 characters, or
			an entire path name 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 translat-
			ing the pathname.

     [EPERM]		The named file is a directory.

     [EPERM]		The named file has its immutable or append-only flag
			set, see the chflags(2) manual page for more informa-
			tion.

     [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.

     [EBUSY]		The entry to be unlinked is the mount point for a

			cated address space.

SEE ALSO

     chflags(2), close(2), link(2), rmdir(2), symlink(7)

HISTORY

     The unlink() function appeared in Version 6 AT&T UNIX.

     The unlink() system call traditionally allows the super-user to unlink
     directories which can damage the file system integrity.  This implementa-
     tion no longer permits it.

FreeBSD 5.4		       February 23, 2005		   FreeBSD 5.4

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