How to use the command 'unlink' (with examples)

The unlink command is used to remove a link to a file from the filesystem. If the link being removed is the last one to the file, the file’s contents are lost. This command is primarily used to delete symbolic links or hard links to files.

Use case 1: Remove the specified file if it is the last link

Code:

unlink path/to/file

Motivation: In some cases, you may want to delete a file only if it is the last link to the file. This helps ensure that the file is not deleted while there are still other links referencing its contents.

Explanation: The unlink command is followed by the path to the file you want to remove. In this use case, if the specified file is the last link to that file, it will be deleted from the filesystem. If there are still other links to the file, the command will not delete the file.

Example output: If the specified file is the last link to the file, it will be deleted without any confirmation message. If the file still has other links, the unlink command will not delete the file and no output will be displayed.

unlink path/to/file

In this example, let’s assume that the specified file file.txt is a soft link in the directory path/to/ and it is the last link to the file. When you run the command unlink path/to/file.txt, the soft link file.txt will be removed from the filesystem.

$ unlink path/to/file.txt
$ ls path/to/

If you run the ls command on the path/to/ directory after executing unlink path/to/file.txt, you will find that the file file.txt is no longer listed in the directory.

Conclusion:

The unlink command provides a way to remove links to files from the filesystem. By specifying the path to the file you want to remove, you can easily delete the link if it is the last one to the file. This command is useful when you want to clean up your file system by removing unnecessary links or when you want to ensure that a file is deleted only if it is the last link.