Unix Programming - Difference between remove and unlink

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Author Difference between remove and unlink
ravi

2004-09-15, 10:36 am

What is the difference between unlink() and remove(). Assume i have a
file x and it has a hardlink y.
then what is the difference between
unlink("x");
remove ("x");

Erik Max Francis

2004-09-15, 10:36 am

ravi wrote:

> What is the difference between unlink() and remove(). Assume i have a
> file x and it has a hardlink y.
> then what is the difference between
> unlink("x");
> remove ("x");


unlink deletes files, rmdir deletes directories, remove deletes either.

man unlink
man remove

--
__ Erik Max Francis && max@alcyone.com && http://www.alcyone.com/max/
/ \ San Jose, CA, USA && 37 20 N 121 53 W && AIM erikmaxfrancis
\__/ Then conquer we must, for our cause is just ...
-- Francis Scott Key
Stephane CHAZELAS

2004-09-15, 10:36 am

2004-09-15, 00:35(-07), Erik Max Francis:
[...]
>
> unlink deletes files, rmdir deletes directories, remove deletes either.

[...]

And to do so, remove does a "lstat" on the file to find out if
it's a directory or not. That means that "remove" involves two
system calls (lstat and either unlink or rmdir). You can save
the "lstat" if you know the type of the file by advance by
calling directly unlink or rmdir.

--
Stephane
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