Programming Perl, 4th Edition

unlink

unlink LIST
unlink

This function deletes a list of files.^[256] The function returns the number of filenames successfully deleted. Here are some examples:

$count = unlink("a", "b", "c");
unlink @goners;
unlink glob("*.orig");

The unlink function will not delete directories unless you are the superuser and the supply –U command-line option to Perl. Even if these conditions are met, be warned that unlinking a directory can inflict Serious Damage on your filesystem. Use rmdir instead.

Here’s a simple rm command with very simple error checking:

#!/usr/bin/perl
@cannot = grep {not unlink} @ARGV;
die "$0: could not unlink all of @cannot" if @cannot;

^[256] Actually, under a POSIX filesystem, it removes the directory entries (filenames) that refer to the real files. Since a file may be referenced (linked) from more than one directory, the file isn’t removed until the last reference to it is removed.