Deleting files

In this recipe, we learn how to delete files using a system call and where the name—unlink()—comes from. This recipe will enhance your understanding of links and close the circle. This will improve your overall knowledge of Linux and its filesystem. Knowing how to delete files using the system call will enable you to remove files directly from within your programs.

Here we will write our own version of rm, which we will call remove. After this recipe, we know how to create and delete files and how to make links. These are some of the most common filesystem operations.

Getting ready

In this recipe, we will use the my-stat-v1 program, which we wrote in the Reading inode information and learning the filesystem recipe. We will also continue experimenting on the filenames we created in the previous recipes, my-file, another-name, and third-name. Except for that, you'll need what's listed under Technical requirements for this chapter, that...