How to delete all files and folders in a directory

Question

Using C   how can I delete all files and folders from a directory  but still keep the root directory

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foreach  string file in System IO Directory GetFiles path          System IO File Delete file        foreach  string subDirectory in System IO Directory GetDirectories path           System IO Directory Delete subDirectory true

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DirectoryInfo Folder   new DirectoryInfo Server MapPath path     if  Folder  Exists        foreach  FileInfo fl in Folder  GetFiles                  fl Delete               Folder  Delete

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use DirectoryInfo s GetDirectories method       foreach  DirectoryInfo subDir in new DirectoryInfo targetDir  GetDirectories                        subDir Delete true

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private void ClearFolder string FolderName        DirectoryInfo dir   new DirectoryInfo FolderName        foreach  FileInfo fi in dir GetFiles                  fi IsReadOnly   false          fi Delete               foreach  DirectoryInfo di in dir GetDirectories                  ClearFolder di FullName           di Delete

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We can also show love for LINQ   using System IO  using System Linq      var directory   Directory GetParent TestContext TestDir    directory EnumerateFiles        ToList   ForEach f   gt  f Delete      directory EnumerateDirectories        ToList   ForEach d   gt  d Delete true      Note that my solution here is not performant  because I am using Get    ToList   ForEach      which generates the same IEnumerable twice  I use an extension method to avoid this issue   using System IO  using System Linq      var directory   Directory GetParent TestContext TestDir    directory EnumerateFiles        ForEachInEnumerable f   gt  f Delete      directory EnumerateDirectories        ForEachInEnumerable d   gt  d Delete true      This is the extension method        lt summary gt      Extensions for  lt see cref  System Collections Generic IEnumerable   gt        lt  summary gt  public static class IEnumerableOfTExtensions            lt summary gt          Performs the  lt see cref  System Action   gt          on each item in the enumerable object           lt  summary gt           lt typeparam name  TEnumerable  gt The type of the enumerable  lt  typeparam gt           lt param name  enumerable  gt The enumerable  lt  param gt           lt param name  action  gt The action  lt  param gt           lt remarks gt             I am philosophically opposed to providing such a method  for two reasons             The first reason is that doing so violates the functional programming principles         that all the other sequence operators are based upon  Clearly the sole purpose of a call         to this method is to cause side effects                Eric Lippert     foreach    vs    ForEach     http   blogs msdn com b ericlippert archive 2009 05 18 foreach-vs-foreach aspx           lt  remarks gt      public static void ForEachInEnumerable lt TEnumerable gt  this IEnumerable lt TEnumerable gt  enumerable  Action lt TEnumerable gt  action                foreach  var item in enumerable                        action item

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IO Directory Delete HttpContext Current Server MapPath path   True    You don t need more than that

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Yes  that s the correct way to do it  If you re looking to give yourself a  Clean   or  as I d prefer to call it   Empty  function   you can create an extension method   public static void Empty this System IO DirectoryInfo directory        foreach System IO FileInfo file in directory GetFiles    file Delete        foreach System IO DirectoryInfo subDirectory in directory GetDirectories    subDirectory Delete true       This will then allow you to do something like    System IO DirectoryInfo directory   new System IO DirectoryInfo   C          directory Empty

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To delete the folder  this is code using Text box and  a button using System IO     private void Deletebt Click object sender  EventArgs e        System IO DirectoryInfo myDirInfo   new DirectoryInfo       delete Text        foreach  FileInfo file in myDirInfo GetFiles                 file Delete              foreach  DirectoryInfo dir in myDirInfo GetDirectories                 dir Delete true

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The only thing you should do is to set optional recursive parameter to True    Directory Delete  C  MyDummyDirectory   True   Thanks to  NET

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this will show how we delete the folder and check for it we use Text box    using System IO  namespace delete the folder   public partial class Form1   Form       public Form1                 InitializeComponent               private void Deletebt Click object sender  EventArgs e                  the  first you should write the folder place         if  Pathfolder Text                            MessageBox Show  ples write the path of the folder                Pathfolder Select                  return                     FileAttributes attr   File GetAttributes  Pathfolder Text            if  attr HasFlag FileAttributes Directory               MessageBox Show  Its a directory            else             MessageBox Show  Its a file             string path   Pathfolder Text          FileInfo myfileinf   new FileInfo path           myfileinf Delete

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Call from main  static void Main string   args        string Filepathe   lt Your path gt     DeleteDirectory System IO Directory GetParent Filepathe  FullName                     Add  this method   public static void DeleteDirectory string path        if  Directory Exists path                   Delete all files from the Directory         foreach  string file in Directory GetFiles path                         File Delete file                       Delete all child Directories         foreach  string directory in Directory GetDirectories path                          DeleteDirectory directory                       Delete a Directory         Directory Delete path

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private void ClearFolder string FolderName        DirectoryInfo dir   new DirectoryInfo FolderName        foreach FileInfo fi in dir GetFiles                  try                       fi Delete                      catch Exception         Ignore all exceptions            foreach DirectoryInfo di in dir GetDirectories                  ClearFolder di FullName           try                       di Delete                      catch Exception         Ignore all exceptions           If you know there are no sub-folders  something like this may be the easiest       Directory GetFiles folderName  ForEach File Delete

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The following code will clean the directory  but leave the root directory there  recursive     Action lt string gt  DelPath   null  DelPath   p   gt        Directory EnumerateFiles p  ToList   ForEach File Delete       Directory EnumerateDirectories p  ToList   ForEach DelPath       Directory EnumerateDirectories p  ToList   ForEach Directory Delete      DelPath path

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The simplest way   Directory Delete path true     Directory CreateDirectory path     Be aware that this may wipe out some permissions on the folder

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string directoryPath    C  Temp   Directory GetFiles directoryPath  ToList   ForEach File Delete   Directory GetDirectories directoryPath  ToList   ForEach Directory Delete

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private void ClearDirectory string path        if  Directory Exists path    if folder exists               Directory Delete path  true    recursive delete  all subdirs  files            Directory CreateDirectory path    creates empty directory

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The following code will clear the folder recursively   private void clearFolder string FolderName        DirectoryInfo dir   new DirectoryInfo FolderName        foreach FileInfo fi in dir GetFiles                  fi Delete               foreach  DirectoryInfo di in dir GetDirectories                  clearFolder di FullName           di Delete

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The following example shows how you can do that  It first creates some directories and a file and then removes them via Directory Delete topPath  true         static void Main string   args                string topPath     C  NewDirectory           string subPath     C  NewDirectory NewSubDirectory            try                       Directory CreateDirectory subPath                using  StreamWriter writer   File CreateText subPath      example txt                                  writer WriteLine  content added                               Directory Delete topPath  true                bool directoryExists   Directory Exists topPath                Console WriteLine  top-level directory exists      directoryExists                     catch  Exception e                        Console WriteLine  The process failed   0    e Message                     It is taken from https   msdn microsoft com en-us library fxeahc5f v vs 110  aspx

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new System IO DirectoryInfo   C  Temp   Delete true       Or   System IO Directory Delete   C  Temp   true

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System IO DirectoryInfo di   new DirectoryInfo  YourPath     foreach  FileInfo file in di GetFiles          file Delete       foreach  DirectoryInfo dir in di GetDirectories          dir Delete true          If your directory may have many files  EnumerateFiles   is more efficient than GetFiles    because when you use EnumerateFiles   you can start enumerating it before the whole collection is returned  as opposed to GetFiles   where you need to load the entire collection in memory before begin to enumerate it  See this quote here      Therefore  when you are working with many files and directories  EnumerateFiles   can be more efficient    The same applies to EnumerateDirectories   and GetDirectories    So the code would be   foreach  FileInfo file in di EnumerateFiles          file Delete       foreach  DirectoryInfo dir in di EnumerateDirectories          dir Delete true        For the purpose of this question  there is really no reason to use GetFiles   and GetDirectories

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This version does not use recursive calls  and solves the readonly problem   public static void EmptyDirectory string directory           First delete all the files  making sure they are not readonly     var stackA   new Stack lt DirectoryInfo gt         stackA Push new DirectoryInfo directory         var stackB   new Stack lt DirectoryInfo gt         while  stackA Any                  var dir   stackA Pop            foreach  var file in dir GetFiles                          file IsReadOnly   false              file Delete                      foreach  var subDir in dir GetDirectories                          stackA Push subDir               stackB Push subDir                           Then delete the sub directories depth first     while  stackB Any                  stackB Pop   Delete

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It s not the best way to deal with the issue above  But it s an alternative one     while  Directory GetDirectories dirpath  Length  gt  0              Delete all files in directory        while  Directory GetFiles Directory GetDirectories dirpath  0   Length  gt  0                       File Delete Directory GetFiles dirpath  0                    Directory Delete Directory GetDirectories dirpath  0

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Here is the tool I ended with after reading all posts  It does   Deletes all that can be deleted Returns false if some files remain in folder   It deals with   Readonly files Deletion delay Locked files   It doesn t use Directory Delete because the process is aborted on exception            lt summary gt          Attempt to empty the folder  Return false if it fails  locked files               lt  summary gt           lt param name  pathName  gt  lt  param gt           lt returns gt true on success lt  returns gt      public static bool EmptyFolder string pathName                bool errors   false          DirectoryInfo dir   new DirectoryInfo pathName            foreach  FileInfo fi in dir EnumerateFiles                          try                               fi IsReadOnly   false                  fi Delete                       Wait for the item to disapear  avoid  dir not empty  error                   while  fi Exists                                        System Threading Thread Sleep 10                       fi Refresh                                                catch  IOException e                                Debug WriteLine e Message                   errors   true                                   foreach  DirectoryInfo di in dir EnumerateDirectories                          try                               EmptyFolder di FullName                   di Delete                       Wait for the item to disapear  avoid  dir not empty  error                   while  di Exists                                        System Threading Thread Sleep 10                       di Refresh                                                catch  IOException e                                Debug WriteLine e Message                   errors   true                                   return  errors

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Using just static methods with File and Directory instead of FileInfo and DirectoryInfo will perform faster   see accepted answer at What is the difference between File and FileInfo in C     Answer shown as utility method   public static void Empty string directory        foreach string fileToDelete in System IO Directory GetFiles directory                 System IO File Delete fileToDelete             foreach string subDirectoryToDeleteToDelete in System IO Directory GetDirectories directory                 System IO Directory Delete subDirectoryToDeleteToDelete  true

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using System IO   string   filePaths   Directory GetFiles   c  MyDir      foreach  string filePath in filePaths   File Delete filePath

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Every method that I tried  they have failed at some point with System IO errors  The following method works for sure  even if the folder is empty or not  read-only or not  etc   ProcessStartInfo Info   new ProcessStartInfo      Info Arguments     C rd  s  q   C   MyFolder      Info WindowStyle   ProcessWindowStyle Hidden    Info CreateNoWindow   true    Info FileName    cmd exe     Process Start Info

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In Windows 7  if you have just created it manually with Windows Explorer  the directory structure is similar to this one   C     AAA      BBB        CCC          DDD   And running the code suggested in the original question to clean the directory C  AAA  the line di Delete true  always fails with IOException  The directory is not empty  when trying to delete BBB  It is probably because of some kind of delays caching in Windows Explorer   The following code works reliably for me   static void Main string   args        DirectoryInfo di   new DirectoryInfo   c  aaa        CleanDirectory di      private static void CleanDirectory DirectoryInfo di        if  di    null          return       foreach  FileSystemInfo fsEntry in di GetFileSystemInfos                  CleanDirectory fsEntry as DirectoryInfo           fsEntry Delete              WaitForDirectoryToBecomeEmpty di      private static void WaitForDirectoryToBecomeEmpty DirectoryInfo di        for  int i   0  i  lt  5  i                  if  di GetFileSystemInfos   Length    0              return          Console WriteLine di FullName   i           Thread Sleep 50   i

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I used   Directory GetFiles picturePath  ToList   ForEach File Delete     for delete old picture and I don t need any object in this folder

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System IO Directory Delete installPath  true   System IO Directory CreateDirectory installPath

[c#] How to delete all files and folders in a directory?

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