Name

remove — delete a name and possibly the file it refers to

Synopsis

#include <stdio.h>
int remove( const char *  pathname);

DESCRIPTION

remove() deletes a name from the filesystem. It calls unlink(2) for files, and rmdir(2) for directories.

If the removed 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.

RETURN VALUE

On success, zero is returned. On error, −1 is returned, and errno is set appropriately.

ERRORS

The errors that occur are those for unlink(2) and rmdir(2).

CONFORMING TO

C89, C99, 4.3BSD, POSIX.1-2001.

NOTES

Under libc4 and libc5, remove() was an alias for unlink(2) (and hence would not remove directories).

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), link(2), mknod(2), open(2), rename(2), rmdir(2), unlink(2), mkfifo(3)

COLOPHON

This page is part of release 2.79 of the Linux man-pages project. A description of the project, and information about reporting bugs, can be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.


  This file is derived from unlink.2, which has the following copyright:

--snip--
This manpage is Copyright (C) 1992 Drew Eckhardt;
                              1993 Ian Jackson.

Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this
manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are
preserved on all copies.

Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this
manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided that the
entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a
permission notice identical to this one.

Since the Linux kernel and libraries are constantly changing, this
manual page may be incorrect or out-of-date.  The author(s) assume no
responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from
the use of the information contained herein.  The author(s) may not
have taken the same level of care in the production of this manual,
which is licensed free of charge, as they might when working
professionally.

Formatted or processed versions of this manual, if unaccompanied by
the source, must acknowledge the copyright and authors of this work.
--snip--

Edited into remove.3 shape by:
Graeme W. Wilford (G.Wilfordee.surrey.ac.uk) on 13th July 1994