remove

Name

remove - delete a name and possibly the file it refers to

Library

libc.lib

Synopsis

#include <stdio.h>

int remove (const char *path);

Return values

Upon successful completion, reomve return 0. Otherwise, -1 is returned and the global variable errno is set to indicate the error.

Detailed description

The remove function removes the file or directory specified by path.

If path specifies a directory, remove (path);
is the equivalent of rmdir (path);
Otherwise, it is the equivalent of unlink (path);

Examples

/****************** this program shows deleting a file using remove **************/
#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
        char * name = "C:\\input.txt";
        FILE *fp = fopen(name, "w+");
        if (fp == NULL)
                {
                printf ("fopen failed\n");
                return -1;
                }
        fprintf(fp,"hello world");
        fclose(fp);
        
        remove(name);
        fp=fopen(name,"r");
        if (fp == NULL)
                {
                printf ("file has been deleted already\n");
                }
        else
                {
                printf("remove failed\n");
                return -1;
                }
        
        return 0;
}

Output

file has been deleted already

Errors

The remove function may fail and set errno for any of the errors specified for the routines lstat, rmdir or unlink.

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