unlink.3p (12175B)
- '\" et
- .TH UNLINK "3P" 2017 "IEEE/The Open Group" "POSIX Programmer's Manual"
- .\"
- .SH PROLOG
- This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual.
- The Linux implementation of this interface may differ (consult
- the corresponding Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior),
- or the interface may not be implemented on Linux.
- .\"
- .SH NAME
- unlink, unlinkat
- \(em remove a directory entry
- .SH SYNOPSIS
- .LP
- .nf
- #include <unistd.h>
- .P
- int unlink(const char *\fIpath\fP);
- .P
- #include <fcntl.h>
- .P
- int unlinkat(int \fIfd\fP, const char *\fIpath\fP, int \fIflag\fP);
- .fi
- .SH DESCRIPTION
- The
- \fIunlink\fR()
- function shall remove a link to a file. If
- .IR path
- names a symbolic link,
- \fIunlink\fR()
- shall remove the symbolic link named by
- .IR path
- and shall not affect any file or directory named by the contents of the
- symbolic link. Otherwise,
- \fIunlink\fR()
- shall remove the link named by the pathname pointed to by
- .IR path
- and shall decrement the link count of the file referenced by the link.
- .P
- When the file's link count becomes 0 and no process has the file open,
- the space occupied by the file shall be freed and the file shall no
- longer be accessible. If one or more processes have the file open when
- the last link is removed, the link shall be removed before
- \fIunlink\fR()
- returns, but the removal of the file contents shall be postponed until
- all references to the file are closed.
- .P
- The
- .IR path
- argument shall not name a directory unless the process has appropriate
- privileges and the implementation supports using
- \fIunlink\fR()
- on directories.
- .P
- Upon successful completion,
- \fIunlink\fR()
- shall mark for update the last data modification and last file status
- change timestamps of the parent directory. Also, if the file's link
- count is not 0, the last file status change timestamp of the file shall
- be marked for update.
- .P
- The
- \fIunlinkat\fR()
- function shall be equivalent to the
- \fIunlink\fR()
- or
- \fIrmdir\fR()
- function except in the case where
- .IR path
- specifies a relative path. In this case the directory entry to be
- removed is determined relative to the directory associated with the
- file descriptor
- .IR fd
- instead of the current working directory. If the access mode of the
- open file description associated with the file descriptor is not
- O_SEARCH, the function shall check whether directory searches are
- permitted using the current permissions of the directory underlying
- the file descriptor. If the access mode is O_SEARCH, the function
- shall not perform the check.
- .P
- Values for
- .IR flag
- are constructed by a bitwise-inclusive OR of flags from the following
- list, defined in
- .IR <fcntl.h> :
- .IP AT_REMOVEDIR 6
- .br
- Remove the directory entry specified by
- .IR fd
- and
- .IR path
- as a directory, not a normal file.
- .P
- If
- \fIunlinkat\fR()
- is passed the special value AT_FDCWD in the
- .IR fd
- parameter, the current working directory shall be used and the behavior
- shall be identical to a call to
- \fIunlink\fR()
- or
- \fIrmdir\fR()
- respectively, depending on whether or not the AT_REMOVEDIR bit is set in
- .IR flag .
- .SH "RETURN VALUE"
- Upon successful completion, these functions shall return 0. Otherwise,
- these functions shall return \-1 and set
- .IR errno
- to indicate the error. If \-1 is returned, the named file shall not
- be changed.
- .SH ERRORS
- These functions shall fail and shall not unlink the file if:
- .TP
- .BR EACCES
- Search permission is denied for a component of the path prefix, or
- write permission is denied on the directory containing the directory
- entry to be removed.
- .TP
- .BR EBUSY
- The file named by the
- .IR path
- argument cannot be unlinked because it is being used by the system or
- another process and the implementation considers this an error.
- .TP
- .BR ELOOP
- A loop exists in symbolic links encountered during resolution of the
- .IR path
- argument.
- .TP
- .BR ENAMETOOLONG
- .br
- The length of a component of a pathname is longer than
- {NAME_MAX}.
- .TP
- .BR ENOENT
- A component of
- .IR path
- does not name an existing file or
- .IR path
- is an empty string.
- .TP
- .BR ENOTDIR
- A component of the path prefix names an existing file that is neither
- a directory nor a symbolic link to a directory, or the
- .IR path
- argument contains at least one non-\c
- <slash>
- character and ends with one or more trailing
- <slash>
- characters and the last pathname component names an existing file
- that is neither a directory nor a symbolic link to a directory.
- .TP
- .BR EPERM
- The file named by
- .IR path
- is a directory, and either the calling process does not have
- appropriate privileges, or the implementation prohibits using
- \fIunlink\fR()
- on directories.
- .TP
- .BR EPERM " or " EACCES
- .br
- The S_ISVTX flag is set on the directory containing the file referred
- to by the
- .IR path
- argument and the process does not satisfy the criteria specified in the Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1\(hy2017,
- .IR "Section 4.3" ", " "Directory Protection".
- .TP
- .BR EROFS
- The directory entry to be unlinked is part of a read-only file system.
- .P
- The
- \fIunlinkat\fR()
- function shall fail if:
- .TP
- .BR EACCES
- The access mode of the open file description associated with
- .IR fd
- is not O_SEARCH and the permissions of the directory underlying
- .IR fd
- do not permit directory searches.
- .TP
- .BR EBADF
- The
- .IR path
- argument does not specify an absolute path and the
- .IR fd
- argument is neither AT_FDCWD nor a valid file descriptor open for reading
- or searching.
- .TP
- .BR ENOTDIR
- The
- .IR path
- argument is not an absolute path and
- .IR fd
- is a file descriptor associated with a non-directory file.
- .TP
- .BR EEXIST " or " ENOTEMPTY
- .br
- The
- .IR flag
- parameter has the AT_REMOVEDIR bit set and the
- .IR path
- argument names a directory that is not an empty directory, or there are
- hard links to the directory other than dot or a single entry in dot-dot.
- .TP
- .BR ENOTDIR
- The
- .IR flag
- parameter has the AT_REMOVEDIR bit set and
- .IR path
- does not name a directory.
- .P
- These functions may fail and not unlink the file if:
- .TP
- .BR EBUSY
- The file named by
- .IR path
- is a named STREAM.
- .TP
- .BR ELOOP
- More than
- {SYMLOOP_MAX}
- symbolic links were encountered during resolution of the
- .IR path
- argument.
- .TP
- .BR ENAMETOOLONG
- .br
- The length of a pathname exceeds
- {PATH_MAX},
- or pathname resolution of a symbolic link produced an intermediate
- result with a length that exceeds
- {PATH_MAX}.
- .TP
- .BR ETXTBSY
- The entry to be unlinked is the last directory entry to a pure
- procedure (shared text) file that is being executed.
- .br
- .P
- The
- \fIunlinkat\fR()
- function may fail if:
- .TP
- .BR EINVAL
- The value of the
- .IR flag
- argument is not valid.
- .LP
- .IR "The following sections are informative."
- .SH EXAMPLES
- .SS "Removing a Link to a File"
- .P
- The following example shows how to remove a link to a file named
- .BR /home/cnd/mod1
- by removing the entry named
- .BR /modules/pass1 .
- .sp
- .RS 4
- .nf
- #include <unistd.h>
- .P
- char *path = "/modules/pass1";
- int status;
- \&...
- status = unlink(path);
- .fi
- .P
- .RE
- .SS "Checking for an Error"
- .P
- The following example fragment creates a temporary password lock file
- named
- .BR LOCKFILE ,
- which is defined as
- .BR /etc/ptmp ,
- and gets a file descriptor for it. If the file cannot be opened for
- writing,
- \fIunlink\fR()
- is used to remove the link between the file descriptor and
- .BR LOCKFILE .
- .sp
- .RS 4
- .nf
- #include <sys/types.h>
- #include <stdio.h>
- #include <fcntl.h>
- #include <errno.h>
- #include <unistd.h>
- #include <sys/stat.h>
- .P
- #define LOCKFILE "/etc/ptmp"
- .P
- int pfd; /* Integer for file descriptor returned by open call. */
- FILE *fpfd; /* File pointer for use in putpwent(). */
- \&...
- /* Open password Lock file. If it exists, this is an error. */
- if ((pfd = open(LOCKFILE, O_WRONLY| O_CREAT | O_EXCL, S_IRUSR
- | S_IWUSR | S_IRGRP | S_IROTH)) == -1) {
- fprintf(stderr, "Cannot open /etc/ptmp. Try again later.\en");
- exit(1);
- }
- .P
- /* Lock file created; proceed with fdopen of lock file so that
- putpwent() can be used.
- */
- if ((fpfd = fdopen(pfd, "w")) == NULL) {
- close(pfd);
- unlink(LOCKFILE);
- exit(1);
- }
- .fi
- .P
- .RE
- .SS "Replacing Files"
- .P
- The following example fragment uses
- \fIunlink\fR()
- to discard links to files, so that they can be replaced with new
- versions of the files. The first call removes the link to
- .BR LOCKFILE
- if an error occurs. Successive calls remove the links to
- .BR SAVEFILE
- and
- .BR PASSWDFILE
- so that new links can be created, then removes the link to
- .BR LOCKFILE
- when it is no longer needed.
- .sp
- .RS 4
- .nf
- #include <sys/types.h>
- #include <stdio.h>
- #include <fcntl.h>
- #include <errno.h>
- #include <unistd.h>
- #include <sys/stat.h>
- .P
- #define LOCKFILE "/etc/ptmp"
- #define PASSWDFILE "/etc/passwd"
- #define SAVEFILE "/etc/opasswd"
- \&...
- /* If no change was made, assume error and leave passwd unchanged. */
- if (!valid_change) {
- fprintf(stderr, "Could not change password for user %s\en", user);
- unlink(LOCKFILE);
- exit(1);
- }
- .P
- /* Change permissions on new password file. */
- chmod(LOCKFILE, S_IRUSR | S_IRGRP | S_IROTH);
- .P
- /* Remove saved password file. */
- unlink(SAVEFILE);
- .P
- /* Save current password file. */
- link(PASSWDFILE, SAVEFILE);
- .P
- /* Remove current password file. */
- unlink(PASSWDFILE);
- .P
- /* Save new password file as current password file. */
- link(LOCKFILE,PASSWDFILE);
- .P
- /* Remove lock file. */
- unlink(LOCKFILE);
- .P
- exit(0);
- .fi
- .P
- .RE
- .SH "APPLICATION USAGE"
- Applications should use
- \fIrmdir\fR()
- to remove a directory.
- .SH RATIONALE
- Unlinking a directory is restricted to the superuser
- in many historical implementations for reasons given in
- \fIlink\fR()
- (see also
- \fIrename\fR()).
- .P
- The meaning of
- .BR [EBUSY]
- in historical implementations is ``mount point busy''. Since this volume of POSIX.1\(hy2017 does
- not cover the system administration concepts of mounting and unmounting,
- the description of the error was changed to ``resource busy''. (This
- meaning is used by some device drivers when a second process tries to
- open an exclusive use device.) The wording is also intended to allow
- implementations to refuse to remove a directory if it is the root or
- current working directory of any process.
- .P
- The standard developers reviewed TR 24715\(hy2006 and noted that
- LSB-conforming implementations may return
- .BR [EISDIR]
- instead of
- .BR [EPERM]
- when unlinking a directory. A change to permit this behavior by
- changing the requirement for
- .BR [EPERM]
- to
- .BR [EPERM]
- or
- .BR [EISDIR]
- was considered, but decided against since it would break existing
- strictly conforming and conforming applications. Applications written
- for portability to both POSIX.1\(hy2008 and the LSB should be prepared to
- handle either error code.
- .P
- The purpose of the
- \fIunlinkat\fR()
- function is to remove directory entries in directories other than the
- current working directory without exposure to race conditions. Any part
- of the path of a file could be changed in parallel to a call to
- \fIunlink\fR(),
- resulting in unspecified behavior. By opening a file descriptor for
- the target directory and using the
- \fIunlinkat\fR()
- function it can be guaranteed that the removed directory entry is
- located relative to the desired directory.
- .SH "FUTURE DIRECTIONS"
- None.
- .SH "SEE ALSO"
- .IR "\fIclose\fR\^(\|)",
- .IR "\fIlink\fR\^(\|)",
- .IR "\fIremove\fR\^(\|)",
- .IR "\fIrename\fR\^(\|)",
- .IR "\fIrmdir\fR\^(\|)",
- .IR "\fIsymlink\fR\^(\|)"
- .P
- The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1\(hy2017,
- .IR "Section 4.3" ", " "Directory Protection",
- .IR "\fB<fcntl.h>\fP",
- .IR "\fB<unistd.h>\fP"
- .\"
- .SH COPYRIGHT
- Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form
- from IEEE Std 1003.1-2017, Standard for Information Technology
- -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
- Specifications Issue 7, 2018 Edition,
- Copyright (C) 2018 by the Institute of
- Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group.
- In the event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and
- The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard
- is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online at
- http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .
- .PP
- Any typographical or formatting errors that appear
- in this page are most likely
- to have been introduced during the conversion of the source files to
- man page format. To report such errors, see
- https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .