remove, _wremove

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Delete a file.

Syntax

int remove(
   const char *path
);
int _wremove(
   const wchar_t *path
);

Parameters

path
Path of file to be removed.

Return Value

Each of these functions returns 0 if the file is successfully deleted. Otherwise, it returns -1 and sets errno either to EACCES to indicate that the path specifies a read-only file, specifies a directory, or the file is open, or to ENOENT to indicate that the filename or path wasn't found.

See _doserrno, errno, _sys_errlist, and _sys_nerr for more information on these and other return codes.

Remarks

The remove function deletes the file specified by path. _wremove is a wide-character version of _remove; the path argument to _wremove is a wide-character string. _wremove and _remove behave identically otherwise. All handles to a file must be closed before it can be deleted.

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

Generic-Text Routine Mappings

TCHAR.H routine	_UNICODE & _MBCS not defined	_MBCS defined	_UNICODE defined
_tremove	remove	remove	_wremove

Requirements

Routine	Required header
remove	<stdio.h> or <io.h>
_wremove	<stdio.h> or <wchar.h>

For additional compatibility information, see Compatibility.

Libraries

All versions of the C run-time libraries.

Example

// crt_remove.c
/* This program uses remove to delete crt_remove.txt */

#include <stdio.h>

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

Input: crt_remove.txt

This file will be deleted.

Sample Output

Deleted 'CRT_REMOVE.TXT'

See also

File Handling
_unlink, _wunlink