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NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | RETURN VALUE | ERRORS | ATTRIBUTES | CONFORMING TO | BUGS | SEE ALSO | COLOPHON |
REMOVE(3) Linux Programmer's Manual REMOVE(3)
remove - remove a file or directory
#include <stdio.h>
int remove(const char *pathname);
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 is
removed, but processes which have the object open may continue to use
it.
On success, zero is returned. On error, -1 is returned, and errno is
set appropriately.
The errors that occur are those for unlink(2) and rmdir(2).
For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see
attributes(7).
┌──────────┬───────────────┬─────────┐
│Interface │ Attribute │ Value │
├──────────┼───────────────┼─────────┤
│remove() │ Thread safety │ MT-Safe │
└──────────┴───────────────┴─────────┘
POSIX.1-2001, POSIX.1-2008, C89, C99, 4.3BSD.
Infelicities in the protocol underlying NFS can cause the unexpected
disappearance of files which are still being used.
rm(1), unlink(1), link(2), mknod(2), open(2), rename(2), rmdir(2),
unlink(2), mkfifo(3), symlink(7)
This page is part of release 4.12 of the Linux man-pages project. A
description of the project, information about reporting bugs, and the
latest version of this page, can be found at
https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.
GNU 2015-08-08 REMOVE(3)
Pages that refer to this page: unlink(2), symlink(7)