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| <h3 class="section">14.6 Deleting Files</h3> |
| |
| <p><a name="index-deleting-a-file-1472"></a><a name="index-removing-a-file-1473"></a><a name="index-unlinking-a-file-1474"></a> |
| You can delete a file with <code>unlink</code> or <code>remove</code>. |
| |
| <p>Deletion actually deletes a file name. If this is the file's only name, |
| then the file is deleted as well. If the file has other remaining names |
| (see <a href="Hard-Links.html#Hard-Links">Hard Links</a>), it remains accessible under those names. |
| |
| <!-- unistd.h --> |
| <!-- POSIX.1 --> |
| <div class="defun"> |
| — Function: int <b>unlink</b> (<var>const char *filename</var>)<var><a name="index-unlink-1475"></a></var><br> |
| <blockquote><p>The <code>unlink</code> function deletes the file name <var>filename</var>. If |
| this is a file's sole name, the file itself is also deleted. (Actually, |
| if any process has the file open when this happens, deletion is |
| postponed until all processes have closed the file.) |
| |
| <p><a name="index-unistd_002eh-1476"></a>The function <code>unlink</code> is declared in the header file <samp><span class="file">unistd.h</span></samp>. |
| |
| <p>This function returns <code>0</code> on successful completion, and <code>-1</code> |
| on error. In addition to the usual file name errors |
| (see <a href="File-Name-Errors.html#File-Name-Errors">File Name Errors</a>), the following <code>errno</code> error conditions are |
| defined for this function: |
| |
| <dl> |
| <dt><code>EACCES</code><dd>Write permission is denied for the directory from which the file is to be |
| removed, or the directory has the sticky bit set and you do not own the file. |
| |
| <br><dt><code>EBUSY</code><dd>This error indicates that the file is being used by the system in such a |
| way that it can't be unlinked. For example, you might see this error if |
| the file name specifies the root directory or a mount point for a file |
| system. |
| |
| <br><dt><code>ENOENT</code><dd>The file name to be deleted doesn't exist. |
| |
| <br><dt><code>EPERM</code><dd>On some systems <code>unlink</code> cannot be used to delete the name of a |
| directory, or at least can only be used this way by a privileged user. |
| To avoid such problems, use <code>rmdir</code> to delete directories. (In the |
| GNU system <code>unlink</code> can never delete the name of a directory.) |
| |
| <br><dt><code>EROFS</code><dd>The directory containing the file name to be deleted is on a read-only |
| file system and can't be modified. |
| </dl> |
| </p></blockquote></div> |
| |
| <!-- unistd.h --> |
| <!-- POSIX.1 --> |
| <div class="defun"> |
| — Function: int <b>rmdir</b> (<var>const char *filename</var>)<var><a name="index-rmdir-1477"></a></var><br> |
| <blockquote><p><a name="index-directories_002c-deleting-1478"></a><a name="index-deleting-a-directory-1479"></a>The <code>rmdir</code> function deletes a directory. The directory must be |
| empty before it can be removed; in other words, it can only contain |
| entries for <samp><span class="file">.</span></samp> and <samp><span class="file">..</span></samp>. |
| |
| <p>In most other respects, <code>rmdir</code> behaves like <code>unlink</code>. There |
| are two additional <code>errno</code> error conditions defined for |
| <code>rmdir</code>: |
| |
| <dl> |
| <dt><code>ENOTEMPTY</code><dt><code>EEXIST</code><dd>The directory to be deleted is not empty. |
| </dl> |
| |
| <p>These two error codes are synonymous; some systems use one, and some use |
| the other. The GNU system always uses <code>ENOTEMPTY</code>. |
| |
| <p>The prototype for this function is declared in the header file |
| <samp><span class="file">unistd.h</span></samp>. |
| <a name="index-unistd_002eh-1480"></a></p></blockquote></div> |
| |
| <!-- stdio.h --> |
| <!-- ISO --> |
| <div class="defun"> |
| — Function: int <b>remove</b> (<var>const char *filename</var>)<var><a name="index-remove-1481"></a></var><br> |
| <blockquote><p>This is the ISO C<!-- /@w --> function to remove a file. It works like |
| <code>unlink</code> for files and like <code>rmdir</code> for directories. |
| <code>remove</code> is declared in <samp><span class="file">stdio.h</span></samp>. |
| <a name="index-stdio_002eh-1482"></a></p></blockquote></div> |
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