inotify_rm_watch(2)

Purpose

inotify_rm_watch() removes the watch identified by the watch descriptor wd from the inotify instance referred to by fd. It is one third of the inotify API, next to inotify_init.md and inotify_add_watch.md.

Synopsis

#include <sys/inotify.h>
int inotify_rm_watch(int fd, int wd);

Arguments and behavior

fd must refer to an inotify instance and wd to a watch previously returned by inotify_add_watch() on that same instance. Removal is asynchronous to readers: the kernel queues an IN_IGNORED event for this watch descriptor, so a program that just keeps reading gets informed that the watch is gone (the wd can then be retired). A watch can also be removed implicitly – when the watched object is deleted, moved, or its filesystem is unmounted – with the same IN_IGNORED notification.

Return value and errors

Returns 0 on success, -1 on error: EBADF (fd is not a valid descriptor), EINVAL (wd is not a valid watch descriptor on fd, or fd is not an inotify file descriptor).

Flags and constants

None; the call takes exactly the two arguments shown above.

Security and notes

No permission check beyond holding the inotify descriptor: anyone who created the instance may drop its watches. Related event constants (IN_IGNORED 0x00008000 and friends) are tabulated on inotify_add_watch.md; queue behavior and the /proc/sys/fs/inotify/* tunables are described in the fetched inotify.7 and on inotify_init.md.

References

• Cached man page: source-cache/man-pages-sparse/man2/inotify_rm_watch.2
• Online: https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man2/inotify_rm_watch.2.html
• Kernel tables: source-cache/kernel/syscall_64.tbl (255), syscall_32.tbl (293), syscall_generic.tbl (28)
• glibc type change note: comment in the cached roff source (glibc bug 7040)