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35 .Nd remove directory entry
41 .Fn unlink "const char *path"
43 .Fn unlinkat "int dfd" "const char *path" "int flag"
45 .Fn funlinkat "int dfd" "const char *path" "int fd" "int flag"
50 removes the link named by
52 from its directory and decrements the link count of the
53 file which was referenced by the link.
54 If that decrement reduces the link count of the file
56 and no process has the file open, then
57 all resources associated with the file are reclaimed.
58 If one or more process have the file open when the last link is removed,
59 the link is removed, but the removal of the file is delayed until
60 all references to it have been closed.
64 may not be a directory.
68 system call is equivalent to
72 except in the case where
74 specifies a relative path.
75 In this case the directory entry to be removed is determined
76 relative to the directory associated with the file descriptor
78 instead of the current working directory.
82 are constructed by a bitwise-inclusive OR of flags from the following list,
85 .Bl -tag -width indent
87 Remove the directory entry specified by
91 as a directory, not a normal file.
92 .It Dv AT_RESOLVE_BENEATH
93 Only walk paths below the directory specified by the
96 See the description of the
105 is passed the special value
109 parameter, the current working directory is used and the behavior is
110 identical to a call to
114 respectively, depending on whether or not the
120 system call can be used to unlink an already-opened file, unless that
121 file has been replaced since it was opened.
126 is already open as the file descriptor
128 Otherwise, the path will not be removed and an error will be returned.
145 A component of the path prefix is not a directory.
147 The named file is a directory.
148 .It Bq Er ENAMETOOLONG
149 A component of a pathname exceeded 255 characters,
150 or an entire path name exceeded 1023 characters.
152 The named file does not exist.
154 Search permission is denied for a component of the path prefix.
156 Write permission is denied on the directory containing the link
159 Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating the pathname.
161 The named file is a directory.
163 The named file has its immutable, undeletable or append-only flag set, see the
165 manual page for more information.
167 The parent directory of the named file has its immutable or append-only flag
170 The directory containing the file is marked sticky,
171 and neither the containing directory nor the file to be removed
172 are owned by the effective user ID.
174 An I/O error occurred while deleting the directory entry
175 or deallocating the inode.
177 Corrupted data was detected while reading from the file system.
179 The named file resides on a read-only file system.
184 points outside the process's allocated address space.
186 On file systems supporting copy-on-write or snapshots, there was not enough
187 free space to record metadata for the delete operation of the file.
190 In addition to the errors returned by the
199 argument does not specify an absolute path and the
203 nor a valid file descriptor open for searching.
211 argument names a directory that is not an empty directory,
212 or there are hard links to the directory other than dot or
213 a single entry in dot-dot.
221 does not name a directory.
225 argument is not valid.
229 argument is not an absolute path and
233 nor a file descriptor associated with a directory.
234 .It Bq Er ENOTCAPABLE
237 or contained a ".." component leading to a
238 directory outside of the directory hierarchy specified by
240 and the process is in capability mode or the
241 .Dv AT_RESOLVE_BENEATH
245 In addition to the errors returned by
251 The file descriptor is not associated with the path.
262 system call follows The Open Group Extended API Set 2 specification.
270 system call appeared in
274 system call appeared in
279 system call traditionally allows the super-user to unlink directories which
280 can damage the file system integrity.
281 This implementation no longer permits it.