unlink

Remove a single file via the unlink(2) system call

TLDR

Remove a regular file

$ unlink [file]

Remove a symbolic link (removes the link, not the target)

$ unlink [symlink]

Display version information

$ unlink --version

unlink calls the unlink(2) system call to remove the directory entry for a single file. It accepts exactly one operand and has no options for recursion, interactive prompting, or force behavior.When the last link to a file is removed and no process still has it open, the underlying inode and data blocks are freed. For files with multiple hard links, only the named link is removed; data remains accessible through the remaining links. Removing a symbolic link deletes the link itself, not the target.Unlike rm, unlink cannot operate on directories, cannot accept multiple operands, and does not expand shell globs specially. This minimalism makes it predictable for scripts that need to remove exactly one path with no risk of accidentally matching additional files.

PARAMETERS

FILE

Exactly one file path to unlink.

--help

Display a brief help message and exit.

--version

Output version information and exit.

INSTALL

sudo apt install coreutils

sudo dnf install coreutils

sudo pacman -S coreutils

sudo apk add coreutils

sudo zypper install coreutils

brew install coreutils

nix profile install nixpkgs#coreutils

CAVEATS

Only a single operand is accepted; passing two or more arguments is an error. Directories cannot be removed — use rmdir(1) or rm -r for that. Many shells ship unlink as a utility from GNU coreutils; the built-in shell form (e.g. in ksh) may behave slightly differently.

HISTORY

unlink is a long-standing Unix utility that exposes the unlink(2) system call. The GNU coreutils implementation conforms to POSIX.1-2001.