InUnix-like operating systems,unlink is asystem call and acommand line utility to delete files. The program directly interfaces the system call, which removes the file name and (but not onGNU systems) directories likerm andrmdir.^[1] If the file name was the lasthard link to the file, the file itself is deleted as soon as no program has it open.^[2]

Unlike therm utility, theunlink utility only accepts one argument, which can be desirable to guard against accidental multi-deletions.^[3]

It also appears in thePHP,Node.js,R,Perl andPython standard libraries in the form of theunlink() built-in function. Like the Unix utility, it is also used to delete files.^[4][5][6][7]

To delete a file namedfoo, one could type:

%unlinkfoo

InPHP, one could use the following function to do the same:

unlink("foo");

ThePerl syntax is identical to the PHP syntax, save for the parentheses:

unlink"foo";

InNode.js it is almost the same as the others:

fs.unlink("foo",callback);

InR (with theS language compatibility):

unlink("foo")#Comment: using the inside argument 'recursive = TRUE', directories can be deleted

Similarly in Python:

os.unlink("foo")

• List of Unix commands
• link (Unix)
• ln (Unix)

• Unix SUS2008 utilities
• System calls

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