Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!van-bc!ubc-cs!uw-beaver!cornell!batcomputer!theory.tn.cornell.edu!shore
From: shore@theory.tn.cornell.edu (Melinda Shore)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.aix
Subject: Re: Why remove() doesn't remove (symbolic links)?
Keywords: remove(), symbolic link
Message-ID: <1991May3.212509.6542@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu>
Date: 3 May 91 21:25:09 GMT
References: <1991May03.174126.13324@lynx.CS.ORST.EDU> <1991May3.185244.1275@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu> <1991May03.202209.432@lynx.CS.ORST.EDU>
Sender: news@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu
Organization: Cornell Theory Center
Lines: 28
Nntp-Posting-Host: theory.tn.cornell.edu

In article <1991May03.202209.432@lynx.CS.ORST.EDU> ghe@physics.orst.edu writes:
>Which way??? should remove or not??? TFM did not mention a single word on
>symbolic links.

I just checked MFM and it says that "if the named file is a symbolic
link to another file or directory, unlink [aka remove - ms] removes
the symbolic link, not the file or directory to which it refers."
Note the lengthy listings of error conditions at the end of the man
page.

> But TFM says nothing about errno. It only
>mentioned that 0 is returned upon successful completion, and non-zero
>otherwise. 

errno is a Unix thing, and you need to be familiar with it if you're
writing code that makes system calls and you want that code to be
reasonably robust.

>When I try to call remove(b) ('b' is a symbolic link to a directory 'a'),
>perror prints:
>remove: Not a directory

Probably because there's something wrong with either the pathname
you're passing to your program or the pathname your symlink points
to.  Does your program have the same problem with all symlinks?
-- 
                    Software longa, hardware brevis
Melinda Shore - Cornell Information Technologies - shore@theory.tn.cornell.edu