NAME

     unlink - remove directory entry


SYNOPSIS

     #include <unistd.h>

     int unlink(const char *path)


DESCRIPTION

     Unlink removes the entry for the file path from  its  direc-
     tory.   If  this entry was the last link to the file, and no
     process has the file open,  then  all  resources  associated
     with the file are reclaimed.  If, however, the file was open
     in any process, the actual resource reclamation  is  delayed
     until  it  is  closed,  even  though the directory entry has
     disappeared.


RETURN VALUE

     Upon successful completion, a value of 0 is returned.   Oth-
     erwise,  a value of -1 is returned and errno is set to indi-
     cate the error.


ERRORS

     The unlink succeeds unless:

     [ENOTDIR]      A component of  the  path  prefix  is  not  a
                    directory.

     [ENAMETOOLONG] The path name exceeds PATH_MAX characters.

     [ENOENT]       The named file does not exist.

     [EACCES]       Search permission is denied for  a  component
                    of the path prefix.

     [EACCES]       Write permission is denied on  the  directory
                    containing the link to be removed.

     [ELOOP]        Too many symbolic links were  encountered  in
                    translating the pathname.  (Minix-vmd)

     [EPERM]        The named file is a directory.

     [EPERM]        The directory containing the file  is  marked
                    sticky,  and neither the containing directory
                    nor the file to be removed are owned  by  the
                    effective user ID.  (Minix-vmd)

     [EBUSY]        The entry to be unlinked is the  mount  point
                    for a mounted file system.

     [EIO]          An I/O  error  occurred  while  deleting  the
                    directory entry or deallocating the inode.

     [EROFS]        The named file resides on  a  read-only  file
                    system.

     [EFAULT]       Path points outside the  process's  allocated
                    address space.


SEE ALSO

     close(2), link(2), rmdir(2).