Chapters:
1: Introduction
2: Simple example
3: Invocation
4: Finer Control
5: X-Y Plots
6: Contour Plots
7: Image Plots
8: Examples
9: Gri Commands
10: Programming
11: Environment
12: Emacs Mode
13: History
14: Installation
15: Gri Bugs
16: Test Suite
17: Gri in Press
18: Acknowledgments
19: License
Indices:
Concepts
Commands
Variables

### 9.3.51: ``unlink`'

    `unlink \filename'

Delete a filename and possibly the file to which it refers. On non-unix machines, this simply means to delete the file. On unix machines, the action is more subtle. The unix OS permits several processes to use a given file at once. Therefore, ``unlink`' doesn't immediately remove the file, but instead waits until other processes are done with it. Most users will never realize the difference, however, and it is safe to think of ``unlink`' as simply removing the file. To learn more, type ``man unlink`' in a unix shell.

A common use of ``unlink`' is to remove files that were created with the ``tmpname`' facility (see Using OS Inside Gri), e.g.

    \tmp = tmpname
    # do some system commands to put data into this file
    open \tmp
    read columns x y
    draw curve
    unlink \tmp