unlinkat - remove a directory entry relative to a directory file descriptor
SYNOPSIS
#define _ATFILE_SOURCE#include <fcntl.h>int unlinkat(int dirfd, const char *pathname, int flags);
DESCRIPTION
The
unlinkat()
system call operates in exactly the same way as either
unlink(2)
or
rmdir(2)
(depending on whether or not
flags
includes the
AT_REMOVEDIR
flag)
except for the differences described in this manual page.
If the pathname given in
pathname
is relative, then it is interpreted relative to the directory
referred to by the file descriptor
dirfd
(rather than relative to the current working directory of
the calling process, as is done by
unlink(2)
and
rmdir(2)
for a relative pathname).
If the pathname given in
pathname
is relative and
dirfd
is the special value
AT_FDCWD,
then
pathname
is interpreted relative to the current working
directory of the calling process (like
unlink(2)
and
rmdir(2)).
If the pathname given in
pathname
is absolute, then
dirfd
is ignored.
flags
is a bit mask that can either be specified as 0, or by ORing
together flag values that control the operation of
unlinkat().
Currently only one such flags is defined:
AT_REMOVEDIR
By default,
unlinkat()
performs the equivalent of
unlink(2)
on
pathname.
If the
AT_REMOVEDIR
flag is specified, then
performs the equivalent of
rmdir(2)
on
pathname.
RETURN VALUE
On success,
unlinkat()
returns 0.
On error, -1 is returned and
errno
is set to indicate the error.
ERRORS
The same errors that occur for
unlink(2)
and
rmdir(2)
can also occur for
unlinkat().
The following additional errors can occur for
unlinkat():
EBADF
dirfd
is not a valid file descriptor.
EINVAL
An invalid flag value was specified in
flags.
ENOTDIR
pathname
is relative and
dirfd
is a file descriptor referring to a file other than a directory.
VERSIONS
unlinkat()
was added to Linux in kernel 2.6.16.
CONFORMING TO
POSIX.1-2008.
A similar system call exists on Solaris.
NOTES
See
openat(2)
for an explanation of the need for
unlinkat().
This page is part of release 3.14 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/.
