Gnu/coreutils/unlink-invocation
Previous: rmdir invocation, Up: Special file types [Contents][Index]
12.8 unlink
: Remove files via the unlink syscall
unlink
deletes a single specified file name.
It is a minimalist interface to the system-provided
unlink
function. See Deleting Files in The GNU C Library Reference Manual. Synopsis:
It avoids the bells and whistles of the more commonly-used
rm
command (see rm invocation).
unlink filename
On some systems unlink
can be used to delete the name of a
directory. On others, it can be used that way only by a privileged user.
In the GNU system unlink
can never delete the name of a directory.
The unlink
command honors the --help
and
--version
options. To remove a file whose name begins with
‘-
’, prefix the name with ‘./
’, e.g., ‘unlink ./--help
’.
An exit status of zero indicates success, and a nonzero value indicates failure.