LL2_REMOVE_ENTRY(3)

📦
version 2.41.6 · 9 versions
, in alpine 3.22, alpine 3.23, fedora 43, fedora 44

💅 LL2_REMOVE_ENTRY(3) — the ll2_remove_entry page, but make it make sense

okay so bestie, listen. this is a page from the Programmers Manual section 3, and it's about ll2_remove_entry — the little function that yeets a user out of the lastlog2 database entirely. it's giving cleanup era, and honestly? iconic. 🧹✨

🌸 NAME 🌸

ll2_remove_entry — Removes all entries of a user.

like, all of them. not one, not two. every single entry that belongs to that user? gone. poof. 🫶

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

#include <lastlog2.h>

int ll2_remove_entry (struct ll2_context *context, const char *user,
char **error);

so you pull in lastlog2.h, and then you call ll2_remove_entry with a context, a user, and a place to stash your error. simple. clean. slay.

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

Removes all database entries, defined in context, with the user name user. If context is NULL, the default database, defined in LL2_DEFAULT_DATABASE, will be taken.

so basically: you hand it a context and a username, and it nukes every row that matches that user. and if you're feeling lazy and pass NULL as the context? no worries, it just defaults to whatever database LL2_DEFAULT_DATABASE points at. main character energy from the default, honestly. 👑

and here's the little demo they give you, bestie — look how easy:

char    *error = NULL;
const   char *user = "root";

int ret = ll2_remove_entry (NULL, user, &error);

NULL context (so, default database), user is "root", and &error so you can grab the tea if something goes wrong. note the cute alignment on char *error and const char *user — that's just how they write it, we keep it exactly like that. 🎀

🔥 RETURN VALUE 🔥

Returns 0 on success, -ENOMEM or -1 on other failure.

so, vibe check on the return value:

  • 0 — we ate. success. 💅
  • -ENOMEM — out of memory, tragic.
  • -1 — some other failure, unspecified, mysterious, not the move. 💀

and about that error:

error contains an error string if the return value is -1. error is not guaranteed to contain an error string, could also be NULL. error should be freed by the caller.

bestie, read that again. even when you get -1, the error might legitimately be NULL. so check it before you dereference it, okay?? and when it is a string? you free it. the caller frees it. that's you. don't forget, or that's a leak and we don't do leaks here. 😭

🦋 AUTHORS 🦋

Thorsten Kukuk <kukuk@suse.de>

the icon who wrote this. we stan. 🫶

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

the whole friend group, fr fr. go read them next. iykyk. 💜

🙈 REPORTING BUGS 🙈

For bug reports, use the issue tracker <https://github.com/util-linux/util-linux/issues>.

found a bug? don't suffer in silence, bestie — drop it in the issue tracker at <https://github.com/util-linux/util-linux/issues>. that's the whole link, character for character, because i am not about to paraphrase a URL. 🍓

⭐ AVAILABILITY ⭐

The liblastlog2 library is part of the util-linux package since version 2.40. It can be downloaded from Linux Kernel Archive <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/>.

so if you're on util-linux 2.40 or later, liblastlog2 is already in the building. 🎉 earlier than that? sorry babe, it doesn't exist yet. and if you want to grab it directly, it lives at <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/>, which is also typed out exactly and not vibed-at. 👑

🌸 ok that's the whole page, no notes, go delete some entries responsibly 🌸

sign-off tea: this rendering comes from util-linux 2.41.6, dated 2026-08-31, and the page itself is LL2_REMOVE_ENTRY(3) — mwah, periodt. 💋🎀

📦 where this page comes from