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.
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manual page may be incorrect or out-of-date.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.Wilford@ee.surrey.ac.uk) on 13th July 1994