unlink(2)

NAME
unlink, unlinkat - delete a name and possibly the file it refers to

LIBRARY
Standard C library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS
#include <unistd.h>

int unlink(const char *path);

#include <fcntl.h>           /* Definition of AT_* constants */
#include <unistd.h>

int unlinkat(int dirfd, const char *path, int flags);

    Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see feature_test_macros(7)):

unlinkat():
    Since glibc 2.10:
        _POSIX_C_SOURCE >= 200809L
    Before glibc 2.10:
        _ATFILE_SOURCE

DESCRIPTION
unlink() deletes a name from the filesystem. If that name was the last link to a file and no processes have the file open, the file is deleted and the space it was using is made available for reuse.

If the name was the last link to a file but any processes still have the file open, the file will remain in existence until the last file descriptor referring to it is closed.

If the name referred to a symbolic link, the link is removed.

If the name referred to a socket, FIFO, or device, the name for it is removed but processes which have the object open may continue to use it.

  unlinkat()
The unlinkat() system call operates in exactly the same way as either unlink() or rmdir(2) (depending on whether or not flags includes the AT_REMOVEDIR flag) except for the differences described here.

If path is relative, then it is interpreted relative to the directory referred to by the file descriptor dirfd (rather than relative to the current working directory of the calling process, as is done by unlink() and rmdir(2) for a relative pathname).

If path is relative and dirfd is the special value AT_FDCWD, then path is interpreted relative to the current working directory of the calling process (like unlink() and rmdir(2)).

If path is absolute, then dirfd is ignored.

flags is a bit mask that can either be specified as 0, or by ORing together flag values that control the operation of unlinkat(). Currently, only one such flag is defined:

AT_REMOVEDIR
    By default, unlinkat() performs the equivalent of unlink() on path. If the AT_REMOVEDIR flag is specified, it performs the equivalent of rmdir(2) on path.

See openat(2) for an explanation of the need for unlinkat().

RETURN VALUE
On success, zero is returned. On error, -1 is returned, and errno is set to indicate the error.

ERRORS

EACCES
    Write access to the directory containing path is not allowed for the process's effective UID, or one of the directories in path did not allow search permission. (See also path_resolution(7).)

EBUSY
    path cannot be unlinked because it is being used by the system or another process; for example, it is a mount point or the NFS client software created it to represent an active but otherwise nameless inode ("NFS silly renamed").

EFAULT
    path points outside your accessible address space.

EIO An I/O error occurred.

EISDIR
    path refers to a directory. (This is the non-POSIX value returned since Linux 2.1.132.)

ELOOP
    Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating path.

ENAMETOOLONG
    path was too long.

ENOENT
    A component in path does not exist or is a dangling symbolic link, or path is empty.

ENOMEM
    Insufficient kernel memory was available.

ENOTDIR
    A component used as a directory in path is not, in fact, a directory.

EPERM
    The system does not allow unlinking of directories, or unlinking of directories requires privileges that the calling process doesn't have. (This is the POSIX prescribed error return; as noted above, Linux returns EISDIR for this case.)

EPERM (Linux only)
    The filesystem does not allow unlinking of files.

EPERM or EACCES
    The directory containing path has the sticky bit (S_ISVTX) set and the process's effective UID is neither the UID of the file to be deleted nor that of the directory containing it, and the process is not privileged (Linux: does not have the CAP_FOWNER capability).

EPERM
    The file to be unlinked is marked immutable or append-only. (See FS_IOC_SETFLAGS(2const).)

EROFS
    path refers to a file on a read-only filesystem.

The same errors that occur for unlink() and rmdir(2) can also occur for unlinkat(). The following additional errors can occur for unlinkat():

EBADF
    path is relative but dirfd is neither AT_FDCWD nor a valid file descriptor.

EINVAL
    An invalid flag value was specified in flags.

EISDIR
    path refers to a directory, and AT_REMOVEDIR was not specified in flags.

ENOTDIR
    path is relative and dirfd is a file descriptor referring to a file other than a directory.

STANDARDS
POSIX.1-2024.

HISTORY

unlink()
    SVr4, 4.3BSD, POSIX.1-2001.

unlinkat()
    POSIX.1-2008. Linux 2.6.16, glibc 2.4.

  glibc
On older kernels where unlinkat() is unavailable, the glibc wrapper function falls back to the use of unlink() or rmdir(2). When path is relative, glibc constructs a pathname based on the symbolic link in /proc/self/fd that corresponds to the dirfd argument.

BUGS
Infelicities in the protocol underlying NFS can cause the unexpected disappearance of files which are still being used.

SEE ALSO
rm(1), unlink(1), chmod(2), link(2), mknod(2), open(2), rename(2), rmdir(2), mkfifo(3), remove(3), path_resolution(7), symlink(7)