NAME¶

std::remove - std::remove

Synopsis¶

Defined in header <cstdio>
int remove( const char* pathname );

Deletes the file identified by the character string pointed to by pathname.

If the file is currently open by any process, the behavior of this function is
implementation-defined. POSIX systems unlink the file name (directory entry), but
the filesystem space used by the file is not reclaimed while it is open in any
process and while other hard links to the file exist. Windows does not allow the
file to be deleted in such cases.

Parameters¶

pathname - pointer to a null-terminated string containing the path identifying the
file to delete

Return value¶

0 upon success or non-zero value on error.

Notes¶

POSIX specifies many additional details for the behavior of this function.

The standard library also defines a function template std::remove taking a pair of
iterators and a value, this overload is one of the standard algorithms.

Example¶

// Run this code

#include <cstdio>
#include <cstdlib>
#include <fstream>
#include <iostream>

int main()
{
// create a file, check success using operator! of temporary stream object
if (!std::ofstream("file1.txt").put('a'))
{
std::perror("Error creating file1.txt");
return EXIT_FAILURE;
}
std::cout << std::ifstream("file1.txt").rdbuf() << '\n'; // print file

std::remove("file1.txt"); // delete file

if (!std::ifstream{"file1.txt"}) // uses operator! of temporary stream object
{
std::perror("Error opening deleted file");
return EXIT_FAILURE;
}
return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

Possible output:¶

a
Error opening deleted file: No such file or directory

See also¶

remove removes a file or empty directory
remove_all removes a file or directory and all its contents, recursively
(C++17) (function)
(C++17)
rename renames a file
(function)
C documentation for
remove