.\" This file is derived from unlink.2, which has the following copyright:
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.\" This manpage is Copyright (C) 1992 Drew Eckhardt;
.\"             and Copyright (C) 1993 Ian Jackson.
.\"
.\" Edited into remove.3 shape by:
.\" Graeme W. Wilford (G.Wilford@ee.surrey.ac.uk) on 13th July 1994
.\"
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.\"
.TH REMOVE 3 2017-09-15 "GNU" "Linux Programmer's Manual"
.SH NAME
remove \- remove a file or directory
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B #include <stdio.h>
.PP
.BI "int remove(const char *" pathname );
.SH DESCRIPTION
.BR remove ()
deletes a name from the filesystem.
It calls
.BR unlink (2)
for files, and
.BR rmdir (2)
for directories.
.PP
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.
.PP
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.
.PP
If the name referred to a symbolic link, the link is removed.
.PP
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.
.SH RETURN VALUE
On success, zero is returned.
On error, \-1 is returned, and
.I errno
is set appropriately.
.SH ERRORS
The errors that occur are those for
.BR unlink (2)
and
.BR rmdir (2).
.SH ATTRIBUTES
For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see
.BR attributes (7).
.TS
allbox;
lb lb lb
l l l.
Interface	Attribute	Value
T{
.BR remove ()
T}	Thread safety	MT-Safe
.TE
.SH CONFORMING TO
POSIX.1-2001, POSIX.1-2008, C89, C99, 4.3BSD.
.\" .SH NOTES
.\" Under libc4 and libc5,
.\" .BR remove ()
.\" was an alias for
.\" .BR unlink (2)
.\" (and hence would not remove directories).
.SH BUGS
Infelicities in the protocol underlying NFS can cause the unexpected
disappearance of files which are still being used.
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR rm (1),
.BR unlink (1),
.BR link (2),
.BR mknod (2),
.BR open (2),
.BR rename (2),
.BR rmdir (2),
.BR unlink (2),
.BR mkfifo (3),
.BR symlink (7)
.SH COLOPHON
This page is part of release 5.10 of the Linux
.I man-pages
project.
A description of the project,
information about reporting bugs,
and the latest version of this page,
can be found at
\%https://www.kernel.org/doc/man\-pages/.