Removing a non empty directory programmatically in C or C

Question

How to delete a non empty directory in C or C    Is there any function  rmdir only deletes empty directory  Please provide a way without using any external library    Also tell me how to delete a file in C or C

User · Answer

The easiest way to do this is with remove_all function of the Boost.Filesystem library. Besides, the resulting code will be portable.

If you want to write something specific for Unix (rmdir) or for Windows (RemoveDirectory) then you'll have to write a function that deletes are subfiles and subfolders recursively.

EDIT

Looks like this question was already asked, in fact someone already recommended Boost's remove_all. So please don't upvote my answer.

User · Answer

How to delete a non empty folder using unlinkat   in c   Here is my work on it                 Program to erase the files subfolders in a directory given as an input               include  lt stdio h gt       include  lt stdlib h gt       include  lt string h gt       include  lt dirent h gt       include  lt unistd h gt       include  lt sys types h gt       include  lt sys stat h gt       include  lt fcntl h gt      void remove dir content const char  path                struct dirent  de          char fname 300           DIR  dr   opendir path           if dr    NULL                        printf  No file or directory found n                return                    while  de   readdir dr      NULL                        int ret   -1              struct stat statbuf              sprintf fname   s  s  path de- gt d name               if   strcmp de- gt d name           strcmp de- gt d name                                 continue              if  stat fname   amp statbuf                                 if S ISDIR statbuf st mode                                         printf  Is dir   s n  fname                       printf  Err   d n  ret   unlinkat dirfd dr  fname AT REMOVEDIR                        if ret    0                                                remove dir content fname                           printf  Err   d n  ret   unlinkat dirfd dr  fname AT REMOVEDIR                                                            else                                       printf  Is file   s n  fname                       printf  Err   d n  unlink fname                                                      closedir dr             void main                 char str 10  str1 20          fname 300      Use str str1 as your directory path where it s files  amp  subfolders will be deleted          printf  Enter the dirctory name              scanf   s  str           strcat str1 str           printf  str1   s n  str1           remove dir content str1     str1 indicates the directory path

User · Answer

You can use opendir and readdir to read directory entries and unlink to delete them

User · Answer

C  17 has  lt experimental filesystem gt  which is based on the boost version   Use std  experimental  filesystem  remove all to remove recursively   If you need more control  try std  experimental  filesystem  recursive directory iterator   You can also write your own recursion with the non-resursive version of the iterator   namespace fs   std  experimental  filesystem  void IterateRecursively fs  path path      if  fs  is directory path           for  auto  amp  child   fs  directory iterator path         IterateRecursively child path            std  cout  lt  lt  path  lt  lt  std  endl

User · Answer

If you are using a POSIX compliant OS  you could use nftw   for file tree traversal and remove  removes files or directories   If you are in C   and your project uses boost  it is not a bad idea to use the Boost Filesystem as suggested by Manuel   In the code example below I decided not to traverse symbolic links and mount points  just to avoid a grand removal        include  lt stdio h gt   include  lt stdlib h gt   include  lt ftw h gt   static int rmFiles const char  pathname  const struct stat  sbuf  int type  struct FTW  ftwb        if remove pathname   lt  0                perror  ERROR  remove            return -1            return 0     int main int argc  char  argv          if  argc    2                fprintf stderr  usage   s path n  argv 0            exit 1                 Delete the directory and its contents by traversing the tree in reverse order  without crossing mount boundaries and symbolic links      if  nftw argv 1   rmFiles 10  FTW DEPTH FTW MOUNT FTW PHYS   lt  0                perror  ERROR  ntfw            exit 1              return 0

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You want to write a function  a recursive function is easiest  but can easily run out of stack space on deep directories  that will enumerate the children of a directory   If you find a child that is a directory  you recurse on that   Otherwise  you delete the files inside   When you are done  the directory is empty and you can remove it via the syscall   To enumerate directories on Unix  you can use opendir    readdir    and closedir     To remove you use rmdir   on an empty directory  i e  at the end of your function  after deleting the children  and unlink   on a file   Note that on many systems the d type member in struct dirent is not supported  on these platforms  you will have to use stat   and S ISDIR stat st mode  to determine if a given path is a directory   On Windows  you will use FindFirstFile   FindNextFile   to enumerate  RemoveDirectory   on empty directories  and DeleteFile   to remove files   Here s an example that might work on Unix  completely untested    int remove directory const char  path       DIR  d   opendir path      size t path len   strlen path      int r   -1      if  d          struct dirent  p         r   0        while   r  amp  amp   p readdir d                int r2   -1            char  buf            size t len                Skip the names     and      as we don t want to recurse on them               if   strcmp p- gt d name           strcmp p- gt d name                      continue             len   path len   strlen p- gt d name    2             buf   malloc len              if  buf                 struct stat statbuf                snprintf buf  len    s  s   path  p- gt d name                if   stat buf   amp statbuf                     if  S ISDIR statbuf st mode                      r2   remove directory buf                   else                    r2   unlink buf                               free buf                         r   r2                closedir d            if   r        r   rmdir path       return r

User · Answer

Recursely Delete files using       Gnome-Glib  amp  C  11                                                            include  lt iostream gt   include  lt string gt   include  lt glib h gt   include  lt glib gstdio h gt   using namespace std   int DirDelete const string amp  path       const gchar     p     GError    gerr     GDir      d     int       r     string    ps     string    path i     cout  lt  lt   open    lt  lt  path  lt  lt    n      d          g dir open path c str    0   amp gerr      r          -1      if  d          r   0         while   r  amp  amp   p g dir read name d                ps   string p             if  ps           ps                        continue                         path i   path   string        p              if  g file test path i c str    G FILE TEST IS DIR     0                cout  lt  lt   recurse    lt  lt  path i  lt  lt    n               r   DirDelete path i                         else               cout  lt  lt   unlink    lt  lt  path i  lt  lt    n               r   g unlink path i c str                                g dir close d            if  r    0          r   g rmdir path c str          cout  lt  lt   rmdir    lt  lt  path  lt  lt    n             return r

User · Answer

Many unix-like systems  Linux  the BSDs  and OS X  at the very least  have the fts functions for directory traversal  To recursively delete a directory  perform a depth-first traversal  without following symlinks  and remove every visited file  int recursive delete const char  dir        int ret   0      FTS  ftsp   NULL      FTSENT  curr          Cast needed  in C  because fts open   takes a  quot char   const   quot   instead        of a  quot const char   const   quot   which is only allowed in C    fts open          does not modify the argument      char  files        char    dir  NULL            FTS NOCHDIR  - Avoid changing cwd  which could cause unexpected behavior                       in multithreaded programs        FTS PHYSICAL - Don t follow symlinks  Prevents deletion of files outside                       of the specified directory        FTS XDEV     - Don t cross filesystem boundaries     ftsp   fts open files  FTS NOCHDIR   FTS PHYSICAL   FTS XDEV  NULL       if   ftsp            fprintf stderr   quot  s  fts open failed   s n quot   dir  strerror errno            ret   -1          goto finish             while   curr   fts read ftsp              switch  curr- gt fts info            case FTS NS          case FTS DNR          case FTS ERR              fprintf stderr   quot  s  fts read error   s n quot                       curr- gt fts accpath  strerror curr- gt fts errno                break           case FTS DC          case FTS DOT          case FTS NSOK                 Not reached unless FTS LOGICAL  FTS SEEDOT  or FTS NOSTAT were                passed to fts open               break           case FTS D                 Do nothing  Need depth-first search  so directories are deleted                in FTS DP             break           case FTS DP          case FTS F          case FTS SL          case FTS SLNONE          case FTS DEFAULT              if  remove curr- gt fts accpath   lt  0                    fprintf stderr   quot  s  Failed to remove   s n quot                           curr- gt fts path  strerror curr- gt fts errno                    ret   -1                            break                   finish      if  ftsp            fts close ftsp              return ret

[c++] Removing a non empty directory programmatically in C or C++

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