nixCraft

#1 (**permalink**) 10-14-2005, 07:31 AM

I program in C. while doing some operations, i created some temporary files in my harddisk. However after the execution of the programs, i would like to remove the files. How can i remove these files? I only thought if it was possible to use shell command "rm" within the C program.
How is it possible?

monk · #2 (**permalink**) 10-14-2005, 08:35 AM

I suggest to use C API that removes file. Here is Linux GCC API (code) to remove file:

Code:

#include<stdio.h>
#include <unistd.h> /* API to remove file */

int main(){
        if ( unlink("/tmp/file.tmp") == 0 ){
                printf("File deleted\n");
        }
        else{
                printf("Error deleting file\n");
        }
}

You need to use unlink("/path/to/file"); API -- unlink deletes a name from the filesystem. If that name was the last link to a file and no processes have the file open the file is deleted and the space it was using is made available for reuse.

However if you wish to use call shell command like rm then you need to use system() API - execute a shell command.

Code:

#include<stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h> /* system() */

int main(){
     if ( system("rm -f /tmp/file.tmp") == -1 ){
            printf("Deleted\n");
     }
    else {
            printf("Cannot delete or call rm command");
    }
}

Use any one of the code. For more info read man pages

Code:

man 2 unlink 
man system

sweta · #3 (**permalink**) 10-14-2005, 09:25 AM

well monk has pointed you right direction, howerver you should use popen() function insted of system()/exec() if you need to call a rm or other shell script. It is bit secure to use popen() then system(), IMPO

Quote:

The popen() function opens a process by creating a pipe, forking, and invoking the shell. Since a pipe is by definition unidirectional, the type argument may specify only reading or writing, not both; the resulting stream is correspondingly read-only or write-only.

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using shell commands in C

using shell commands in C

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