NAME

std::remove - std::remove

Synopsis

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

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

If the file is currently open by the current or another process, the behavior of
this function is implementation-defined (in particular, POSIX systems unlink the
file name, although the file system space is not reclaimed even if this was the last
hardlink to the file until the last running process closes the file, Windows does
not allow the file to be deleted)

Parameters

fname - 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 <iostream>
#include <fstream>
#include <cstdio>
int main()
{
bool ok = static_cast<bool>(std::ofstream("file1.txt").put('a')); // create file
if(!ok) { std::perror("Error creating file1.txt"); return 1; }
std::cout << std::ifstream("file1.txt").rdbuf() << '\n'; // print file

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

bool failed = !std::ifstream("file1.txt");
if(failed) { std::perror("Error opening deleted file"); return 1; }
}

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)