Unlinkatint

Unlinkatint is a term used in some programming references to denote the integer return value associated with the POSIX unlinkat function. Unlinkat is a system call and C library wrapper that removes a directory entry, with the operation interpreted relative to a specified directory file descriptor.

The standard signature is int unlinkat(int dirfd, const char *pathname, int flags). The dirfd parameter may refer to a directory file descriptor, or the special value AT_FDCWD to use the current working directory. The function returns 0 on success and -1 on error, with errno set to indicate the failure reason.

Behavior and flags are central to unlinkat. By default, unlinkat removes a file name from the directory referenced by dirfd; if the target is a directory, the operation fails with EISDIR unless the AT_REMOVEDIR flag is supplied. The AT_SYMLINK_FOLLOW flag controls how symbolic links are treated: without this flag, a symbolic link itself is removed; with the flag, the link is followed and the targeted file is removed. Other typical error conditions include EACCES (permission denied), ENOENT (no such file or directory), and EPERM or EBUSY for protected or in-use targets.

Relation to related interfaces: unlinkat generalizes the older unlink function by adding the directory file descriptor and flags that influence behavior. It is commonly available in POSIX-compliant systems and in Linux, BSD, and macOS environments, usually declared in headers such as unistd.h or fcntl-related headers.

Usage notes: unlinkatint is not a separate standardized function name but a way some documentation or code comments refer to the integer result returned by unlinkat. Developers rely on the 0 vs -1 convention and the errno codes to handle success and failure.