mq_unlink(3)

💖 mq_unlink — NAME (iykyk) 💖

okay so bestie, this one's from the Library Functions Manual, and it's called mq_unlink — literally just "remove a message queue" 💅

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🎀 LIBRARY 🎀

it lives in the real-time library: librt, and you link it with -lrt. no cap.

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

#include <mqueue.h>

int mq_unlink(const char *name);

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

okay so here's the vibe: mq_unlink() removes the specified message queue name.

and the way that the name gets removed immediately — right away, no waiting, periodt. but the queue itself? the queue doesn't get destroyed until any other processes that have the queue open close their descriptors referring to the queue. so like... it's giving "you can leave but the party isn't over until everybody leaves" 🫶

no cap, that's the whole thing.

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🌸 RETURN VALUE 🌸

• on success, mq_unlink() returns 0 ✨
• on error, -1 comes back, and errno gets set to tell you which error it was 🙈

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💀 ERRORS 💀

• EACCES — the caller does not have permission to unlink this message queue. like, not your queue, not your business, bestie 😭
• ENAMETOOLONG — name was too long. it's giving... excessive 💅
• ENOENT — there is no message queue with the given name. ghosted fr fr 👻

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⭐ ATTRIBUTES ⭐

if you wanna know what these terms even mean, go peek at attributes(7). (that's the whole explanation, i'm not gatekeeping.)

and for mq_unlink() specifically:

• Interface: mq_unlink()
• Attribute: Thread safety
• Value: MT-Safe

so yeah — thread safe, slay, iconic, no notes 🔥

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👑 STANDARDS 👑

POSIX.1-2008.

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🌈 HISTORY 🌈

POSIX.1-2001. it's been around, it's got lore, it's a main character 💜

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🧚 SEE ALSO 🧚

• mq_close(3)
• mq_getattr(3)
• mq_notify(3)
• mq_open(3)
• mq_receive(3)
• mq_send(3)
• mq_overview(7)

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and that's the whole page bestie, go unlink responsibly 🍓

this has been mq_unlink(3) from the Linux man-pages 6.20, dated 2026-02-08 — k bye, love you, drink water 💖✨🦋