_unlink, _wunlink

Delete a file.

Syntax

C

int _unlink(
   const char *filename
);
int _wunlink(
   const wchar_t *filename
);

Parameters

filename
Name of file to remove.

Return value

Each of these functions returns 0 if successful. Otherwise, the function returns -1 and sets errno to EACCES, which means the path specifies a read-only file or a directory, or to ENOENT, which means the file or path isn't found.

For more information about return codes, see errno, _doserrno, _sys_errlist, and _sys_nerr.

Remarks

The _unlink function deletes the file specified by filename. _wunlink is a wide-character version of _unlink; the filename argument to _wunlink is a wide-character string. These functions behave identically otherwise.

By default, this function's global state is scoped to the application. To change this behavior, see Global state in the CRT.

Generic-text routine mappings

TCHAR.H routine	_UNICODE and _MBCS not defined	_MBCS defined	_UNICODE defined
_tunlink	_unlink	_unlink	_wunlink

Requirements

Routine	Required header
_unlink	<io.h> and <stdio.h>
_wunlink	<io.h> or <wchar.h>

For more compatibility information, see Compatibility.

Code example

This program uses _unlink to delete CRT_UNLINK.TXT.

C

// crt_unlink.c

#include <stdio.h>

int main( void )
{
   if( _unlink( "crt_unlink.txt" ) == -1 )
      perror( "Could not delete 'CRT_UNLINK.TXT'" );
   else
      printf( "Deleted 'CRT_UNLINK.TXT'\n" );
}

Input: crt_unlink.txt

Input

This file will be deleted.

Sample output

Output

Deleted 'CRT_UNLINK.TXT'

See also

File handling
_close
remove, _wremove