Movatterモバイル変換

remove(3) — Linux manual page

remove(3)                Library Functions Manualremove(3)

NAME        top

       remove - remove a file or directory

LIBRARY        top

       Standard C library (libc,-lc)

SYNOPSIS        top

#include <stdio.h>int remove(const char *path);

DESCRIPTION        top

remove() deletes a name from the filesystem.  It callsunlink(2)       for files, andrmdir(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 is       removed, but processes which have the object open may continue to       use it.

RETURN VALUE        top

       On success, zero is returned.  On error, -1 is returned, anderrno       is set to indicate the error.

ERRORS        top

       The errors that occur are those forunlink(2) andrmdir(2).

ATTRIBUTES        top

       For an explanation of the terms used in this section, seeattributes(7).       ┌──────────────────────────────────────┬───────────────┬─────────┐       │Interface│Attribute│Value│       ├──────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────┤       │remove()                             │ Thread safety │ MT-Safe │       └──────────────────────────────────────┴───────────────┴─────────┘

STANDARDS        top

       C11, POSIX.1-2008.

HISTORY        top

       POSIX.1-2001, C89, 4.3BSD.

BUGS        top

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

SEE ALSO        top

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

COLOPHON        top

       This page is part of theman-pages (Linux kernel and C library       user-space interface documentation) project.  Information about       the project can be found at        ⟨https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/⟩.  If you have a bug report       for this manual page, see       ⟨https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/docs/man-pages/man-pages.git/tree/CONTRIBUTING⟩.       This page was obtained from the tarball man-pages-6.15.tar.gz       fetched from       ⟨https://mirrors.edge.kernel.org/pub/linux/docs/man-pages/⟩ on       2025-08-11.  If you discover any rendering problems in this HTML       version of the page, or you believe there is a better or more up-       to-date source for the page, or you have corrections or       improvements to the information in this COLOPHON (which isnot       part of the original manual page), send a mail to       man-pages@man7.orgLinux man-pages 6.15            2025-05-17remove(3)

Pages that refer to this page:unlink(2), stdio(3), symlink(7)

HTML rendering created 2025-09-06 byMichael Kerrisk, author ofThe Linux Programming Interface. For details of in-depthLinux/UNIX system programming training courses that I teach, lookhere. Hosting byjambit GmbH.