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28 .\" @(#)unlink.2 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93
37 .Nd remove directory entry
43 .Fn unlink "const char *path"
45 .Fn unlinkat "int dfd" "const char *path" "int flag"
47 .Fn funlinkat "int dfd" "const char *path" "int fd" "int flag"
52 removes the link named by
54 from its directory and decrements the link count of the
55 file which was referenced by the link.
56 If that decrement reduces the link count of the file
58 and no process has the file open, then
59 all resources associated with the file are reclaimed.
60 If one or more process have the file open when the last link is removed,
61 the link is removed, but the removal of the file is delayed until
62 all references to it have been closed.
66 may not be a directory.
70 system call is equivalent to
74 except in the case where
76 specifies a relative path.
77 In this case the directory entry to be removed is determined
78 relative to the directory associated with the file descriptor
80 instead of the current working directory.
84 are constructed by a bitwise-inclusive OR of flags from the following list,
87 .Bl -tag -width indent
89 Remove the directory entry specified by
93 as a directory, not a normal file.
94 .It Dv AT_RESOLVE_BENEATH
95 Only walk paths below the directory specified by the
98 See the description of the
107 is passed the special value
111 parameter, the current working directory is used and the behavior is
112 identical to a call to
116 respectively, depending on whether or not the
122 system call can be used to unlink an already-opened file, unless that
123 file has been replaced since it was opened.
128 is already open as the file descriptor
130 Otherwise, the path will not be removed and an error will be returned.
147 A component of the path prefix is not a directory.
149 The named file is a directory.
150 .It Bq Er ENAMETOOLONG
151 A component of a pathname exceeded 255 characters,
152 or an entire path name exceeded 1023 characters.
154 The named file does not exist.
156 Search permission is denied for a component of the path prefix.
158 Write permission is denied on the directory containing the link
161 Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating the pathname.
163 The named file is a directory.
165 The named file has its immutable, undeletable or append-only flag set, see the
167 manual page for more information.
169 The parent directory of the named file has its immutable or append-only flag
172 The directory containing the file is marked sticky,
173 and neither the containing directory nor the file to be removed
174 are owned by the effective user ID.
176 An I/O error occurred while deleting the directory entry
177 or deallocating the inode.
179 Corrupted data was detected while reading from the file system.
181 The named file resides on a read-only file system.
186 points outside the process's allocated address space.
188 On file systems supporting copy-on-write or snapshots, there was not enough
189 free space to record metadata for the delete operation of the file.
192 In addition to the errors returned by the
201 argument does not specify an absolute path and the
205 nor a valid file descriptor open for searching.
213 argument names a directory that is not an empty directory,
214 or there are hard links to the directory other than dot or
215 a single entry in dot-dot.
223 does not name a directory.
227 argument is not valid.
231 argument is not an absolute path and
235 nor a file descriptor associated with a directory.
236 .It Bq Er ENOTCAPABLE
239 or contained a ".." component leading to a
240 directory outside of the directory hierarchy specified by
242 and the process is in capability mode or the
243 .Dv AT_RESOLVE_BENEATH
247 In addition to the errors returned by
253 The file descriptor is not associated with the path.
264 system call follows The Open Group Extended API Set 2 specification.
272 system call appeared in
276 system call appeared in
281 system call traditionally allows the super-user to unlink directories which
282 can damage the file system integrity.
283 This implementation no longer permits it.