remove(3)

1REMOVE(3)                  Linux Programmer's Manual                 REMOVE(3)
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NAME

6       remove - remove a file or directory
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SYNOPSIS

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

14       remove()  deletes  a name from the file system.  It calls unlink(2) for
15       files, and rmdir(2) for directories.
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17       If the removed name was the last link to a file and no  processes  have
18       the  file  open, the file is deleted and the space it was using is made
19       available for reuse.
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21       If the name was the last link to a file, but any processes  still  have
22       the  file  open,  the file will remain in existence until the last file
23       descriptor referring to it is closed.
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25       If the name referred to a symbolic link, the link is removed.
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27       If the name referred to a socket, FIFO, or device, the name is removed,
28       but processes which have the object open may continue to use it.
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RETURN VALUE

31       On  success,  zero is returned.  On error, -1 is returned, and errno is
32       set appropriately.
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ERRORS

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

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

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

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

53       This  page  is  part of release 3.25 of the Linux man-pages project.  A
54       description of the project, and information about reporting  bugs,  can
55       be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.
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59GNU                               2008-12-03                         REMOVE(3)