On Thursday 03 January 2008 07:13, Kalvin Weng wrote: > You can use the command unlink .....I think.
No. That's something different. The "unlink" command provides direct access to the unlink() system call. It is what the "rm" and "rmdir" commands ultimately call, but with some safeguards on the way. The "unlink" command is not intended for general use; use "rm" or "rmdir" instead. Both the "unlink" command and the unlink() system call deal with hard links(!). They don't know anything about symlinks. To the system, each file or directory is identified with an "i-node" which has an "i-number". File names and directory paths are just there for us mere mortals who have a hard time remembering 32 bit i-numbers to identify a file or directory. ;-) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inode http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbolic_link From "info unlink": "12.8 `unlink': Remove files via the unlink syscall ================================================== `unlink' deletes a single specified file name. It is a minimalist interface to the system-provided `unlink' function. *Note Deleting Files: (libc)Deleting Files. Synopsis: It avoids the bells and whistles of the more commonly-used `rm' command (*note rm invocation::). unlink FILENAME On some systems `unlink' can be used to delete the name of a directory. On others, it can be used that way only by a privileged user. In the GNU system `unlink' can never delete the name of a directory. ..." From "man 2 unlink": "NAME unlink - delete a name and possibly the file it refers to SYNOPSIS #include <unistd.h> int unlink(const char *pathname); DESCRIPTION unlink() deletes a name from the filesystem. If that 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 for it is removed but processes which have the object open may continue to use it. ..." -- Stefan Hundhammer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Penguin by conviction. YaST2 Development SUSE LINUX Products GmbH, GF: Markus Rex, HRB 16746 (AG Nürnberg) Nürnberg, Germany -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
