This simple answer is you, that is you the owner of the process which is attempting to delete the file, must have 'write permissions' on/for that file.

The definition of 'write permissions' is one of the following:

  1. you are the file owner and the file has owner write permission set.
  2. you are a member of the file's group and the file has group write permissions set
  3. The file has other write permissions.

The same rule apply to directories with addtional condition that the directory must be empty.

UPDATE

Holy Dumbus Old Fartus! why an old fart should not be
allowed to touch the keyboard past midnight.

After a well deserved 'slap upside the head' from grep and others.

Please ignore the above the only excuse I can offer is 1969 bad drugs.

Repeat after me: File deletion operations are Directory operations and therefore depend on directory ownership and mode settings

mitd-Made in the Dark
'Interactive! Paper tape is interactive!
If you don't believe me I can show you my paper cut scars!'

In reply to Re: How do I know if I can delete a file/folder? by mitd
in thread How do I know if I can delete a file/folder? by soffen

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.