Question

i am trying to use the rm command in the main routine for deleting a file that i have taken a command line argument. The value is stored in argv[2] i have tried using

system("rm argv[2]");

system("rm ./argv[2]");

system("rm $HOME/argv[2]");

But it gives me an error saying

"cannot locate file argv[2]"

The filename is stored in argv[2] as I have checked it.

Someone please guide me!

Answer 1

Why not use the remove or unlink command instead of system("rm ...")?

remove(argv[2]); or unlink(argv[2]);

---

Update in the case that system("rm ...") must be used

If you must use system("rm ..."), ZelluX is correct in stating that you must retrieve the filename from argv[2]. You can retrieve the string in argv[2] using snprintf or strncpy. Using the variants of the functions that restrict the input size is a good idea as there is no guarantee as to the length of the string in argv[2].

Depending on your application, you may also want to call stat to verify that the string in argv[2] is indeed a file and possibly restrict the type of file.

Example:

This example calls stat to verify that argv[2] is a regular file and asprintf to dynamically allocate space for the buffer.

char *p;
struct stat st;

if (stat(argv[2], &st) == 0 && S_ISREG(st->st_mode))
{
    if (asprintf(&p, "rm %s", argv[2]) != -1)
    {
        system(p);
        free(p);
    }
}