REMOVE(3)		   Linux Programmers Manual		    REMOVE(3)



NAME
       remove - delete a name and possibly the file it refers to

SYNOPSIS
       #include 

       int remove(const char *pathname);

DESCRIPTION
       remove()  deletes  a name from the file system.	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  for	it  is
       removed	but  processes	which have the object open may continue to use
       it.

RETURN VALUE
       On success, zero is returned.  On error, -1 is returned, and  errno  is
       set appropriately.

ERRORS
       The errors that occur are those for unlink(2) and rmdir(2).

CONFORMING TO
       C89, C99, 4.3BSD, POSIX.1-2001.

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

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

SEE ALSO
       rm(1),  unlink(1),  link(2),  mknod(2),	open(2),  rename(2), rmdir(2),
       unlink(2), mkfifo(3), symlink(7)

COLOPHON
       This page is part of release 3.05 of the Linux  man-pages  project.   A
       description  of	the project, and information about reporting bugs, can
       be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.



GNU				  1994-07-13			     REMOVE(3)