unlink

unlink list

Deletes a list of files. (Under Unix, it will remove a link to a file, but the file may still exist if another link references it.) If list is omitted, it unlinks the file given in $_. The function returns the number of files successfully deleted. Note that unlink will not delete directories unless you are the superuser and the -U flag is supplied to Perl. Even if these conditions are met, be warned that unlinking a directory can inflict serious damage on your filesystem. Use rmdir instead.