How to delete a folder in C

Question

How can I delete a folder using C     If no cross-platform way exists  then how to do it for the most-popular OSes - Windows  Linux  Mac  iOS  Android  Would a POSIX solution work for all of them

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For linux  I have fixed bugs in code above    void remove dir char  path            struct dirent  entry   NULL          DIR  dir   NULL          dir   opendir path           while entry   readdir dir                                DIR  sub dir   NULL                  FILE  file   NULL                  char  abs path new char 256                    if     entry- gt d name               strlen entry- gt d name   gt  1   amp  amp   entry- gt d name 1                                                         sprintf abs path    s  s   path  entry- gt d name                           if sub dir   opendir abs path                                                                closedir sub dir                                   remove dir abs path                                                        else                                                               if file   fopen abs path   r                                                                                 fclose file                                           remove abs path                                                                                                       delete   abs path                          remove path       For windows   void remove dir const wchar t  folder        std  wstring search path   std  wstring folder     T              std  wstring s p   std  wstring folder     T           WIN32 FIND DATA fd      HANDLE hFind     FindFirstFile search path c str     amp fd       if  hFind    INVALID HANDLE VALUE            do               if  fd dwFileAttributes  amp  FILE ATTRIBUTE DIRECTORY                    if  wcscmp fd cFileName   T          0  amp  amp  wcscmp fd cFileName   T           0                                        remove dir  wchar t   s p   fd cFileName  c str                                                 else                   DeleteFile  s p   fd cFileName  c str                             while    FindNextFile hFind   amp fd              FindClose hFind            wrmdir folder

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With C  17 you can use std  filesystem  in C  14 std  experimental  filesystem is already available  Both allow the usage of filesystem  remove     C  17    include  lt filesystem gt  std  filesystem  remove  myEmptyDirectoryOrFile       Deletes empty directories or single files  std  filesystem  remove all  myDirectory       Deletes one or more files recursively    C  14    include  lt experimental filesystem gt  std  experimental  filesystem  remove  myDirectory      Note 1  Those functions throw filesystem error in case of errors  If you want to avoid catching exceptions  use the overloaded variants with std  error code as second parameter  E g   std  error code errorCode  if   std  filesystem  remove  myEmptyDirectoryOrFile   errorCode         std  cout  lt  lt  errorCode message    lt  lt  std  endl      Note 2  The conversion to std  filesystem  path happens implicit from different encodings  so you can pass strings to filesystem  remove

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You can also try this if you are on linux   system  rm -r path

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If you are using windows  then take a look at this link  Otherwise  you may look for your OS specific version api  I don t think C   comes with a cross-platform way to do it  At the end  it s NOT C   s work  it s the OS s work

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The C   Standard defines the remove   function  which may or may not delete a folder  depending on implementation  If it doesn t you need to use an implementation specific function such as rmdir

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void remove dir char  path            struct dirent  entry   NULL          DIR  dir   NULL          dir   opendir path           while entry   readdir dir                                DIR  sub dir   NULL                  FILE  file   NULL                  char abs path 100     0                   if   entry- gt d name                                                       sprintf abs path    s  s   path  entry- gt d name                           if sub dir   opendir abs path                                                                closedir sub dir                                   remove dir abs path                                                        else                                                               if file   fopen abs path   r                                                                                 fclose file                                           remove abs path                                                                                                               remove path

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My own implementation based off hB0 that also allows you to view the number of files in each folder also with a little performance boost    include  lt string gt   include  lt iostream gt   include  lt cstdlib gt   include  lt cstdio gt   include  lt windows h gt   include  lt conio h gt   union seperated     struct       unsigned int low      unsigned int high      uint    unsigned long long ull      unsigned long long num dirs    1  unsigned long long num files   0  seperated size files   int DeleteDirectory  char  refRootDirectory           predeclare it  int DeleteDirectory  char  refRootDirectory         HANDLE      hFile                  Handle to directory     std  string strFilePath                Filepath     WIN32 FIND DATA FileInformation        File information     int     dwError                Folder deleting error     std  string strPattern             Pattern      strPattern    std  string  refRootDirectory                 hFile     FindFirstFile  strPattern c str     amp FileInformation         if  hFile    INVALID HANDLE VALUE                 do               if  FileInformation cFileName 0                             strFilePath erase                    strFilePath   std  string refRootDirectory           FileInformation cFileName                   if  FileInformation dwFileAttributes  amp  FILE ATTRIBUTE DIRECTORY                         DeleteDirectory   char  strFilePath c str                           dwError     GetLastError                        if  dwError    ERROR NO MORE FILES                             std  cout  lt  lt    ERROR        lt  lt  strFilePath c str    lt  lt      n                           return dwError                        else                              Set directory attributes                         if      SetFileAttributes refRootDirectory FILE ATTRIBUTE NORMAL                                  std  cout  lt  lt    ERROR        lt  lt  strFilePath c str    lt  lt      n                               return   GetLastError                                                          Delete directory                         if      RemoveDirectory refRootDirectory                                  std  cout  lt  lt    ERROR        lt  lt  strFilePath c str    lt  lt      n                               return   GetLastError                                                                           num dirs                    else                           Set file attributes                     if      SetFileAttributes strFilePath c str   FILE ATTRIBUTE NORMAL                              std  cout  lt  lt    ERROR        lt  lt  strFilePath c str    lt  lt      n                           return   GetLastError                                                  Delete file                     if       DeleteFile strFilePath c str                                std  cout  lt  lt    ERROR        lt  lt  strFilePath c str    lt  lt      n                           return   GetLastError                                               size files ull          FileInformation nFileSizeLow                      size files uint high    FileInformation nFileSizeHigh                         num files                                            while    FindNextFile hFile  amp FileInformation                 Close handle           FindClose  hFile                return 0     unsigned long long num files total 0  unsigned long long num dirs total 0  unsigned long long total size files 0   void my del directory  char  dir name         int iRC   DeleteDirectory  dir name          int iRC 0       std  cout  lt  lt        lt  lt  dir name  lt  lt                      n    Folders     lt  lt  num dirs            lt  lt    n    Files       lt  lt  num files            lt  lt    n    Size        lt  lt  size files ull  lt  lt    Bytes       if iRC                std  cout  lt  lt    n ERROR      lt  lt  iRC            std  cout  lt  lt    n n        num dirs total      num dirs      num files total     num files      total size files    size files ull      num dirs    1      num files   0      size files ull   0ULL      return     int main  void         size files ull   0ULL       my del directory   char   C  Windows temp                     This will clear out the System temporary directory on windows systems      std  cout  lt  lt    n nResults   lt  lt    nTotal Folders     lt  lt  num dirs total                     lt  lt    nTotal Files       lt  lt  num files total                     lt  lt    nTotal Size        lt  lt  total size files  lt  lt    Bytes n        return 0

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If you are using the Poco library  here is a portable way to delete a directory    include  Poco File h          Poco  File fooDir   path to your dir    fooDir remove true     The remove function when called with  true  means recursively delete all files and sub directories in a directory

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I strongly advise to use Boost FileSystem   http   www boost org doc libs 1 38 0 libs filesystem doc index htm  In your case that would be  boost  filesystem  remove all yourPath

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Try use system  rmdir -s -q file to delte    This will delete the folder and all files in it

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The directory should be empty   BOOL RemoveDirectory  LPCTSTR lpPathName

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The directory must be empty and your program must have permissions to delete it  but the  function called rmdir will do it  rmdir  C  Documents and Settings user Desktop itsme

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Use SHFileOperation to remove the folder recursivelly

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This works for deleting all the directories and files within a directory    include  lt iostream gt   include  lt cstring gt   include  lt cstdlib gt  using namespace std  int main         cout  lt  lt   Enter the DirectoryName to Delete          string directoryName      cin  gt  gt  directoryName      string a    rmdir  s  q     directoryName      system a c str         return 0

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For windows    include  lt direct h gt    if  rmdir  FILEPATHHERE      -1        success        else       failure

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Delete folder  sub folders and files  in Windows  VisualC    not using Shell APIs  this is the best working sample    include  lt string gt   include  lt iostream gt    include  lt windows h gt   include  lt conio h gt    int DeleteDirectory const std  string  amp refcstrRootDirectory                      bool              bDeleteSubdirectories   true      bool            bSubdirectory   false           Flag  indicating whether                                                   subdirectories have been found   HANDLE          hFile                           Handle to directory   std  string     strFilePath                     Filepath   std  string     strPattern                      Pattern   WIN32 FIND DATA FileInformation                 File information     strPattern   refcstrRootDirectory              hFile     FindFirstFile strPattern c str     amp FileInformation     if hFile    INVALID HANDLE VALUE          do             if FileInformation cFileName 0                          strFilePath erase            strFilePath   refcstrRootDirectory          FileInformation cFileName           if FileInformation dwFileAttributes  amp  FILE ATTRIBUTE DIRECTORY                      if bDeleteSubdirectories                             Delete subdirectory             int iRC   DeleteDirectory strFilePath  bDeleteSubdirectories               if iRC                return iRC                        else             bSubdirectory   true                    else                        Set file attributes           if   SetFileAttributes strFilePath c str                                     FILE ATTRIBUTE NORMAL     FALSE              return   GetLastError                  Delete file           if   DeleteFile strFilePath c str       FALSE              return   GetLastError                            while   FindNextFile hFile   amp FileInformation     TRUE           Close handle       FindClose hFile        DWORD dwError     GetLastError        if dwError    ERROR NO MORE FILES        return dwError      else             if  bSubdirectory                     Set directory attributes         if   SetFileAttributes refcstrRootDirectory c str                                   FILE ATTRIBUTE NORMAL     FALSE            return   GetLastError                Delete directory         if   RemoveDirectory refcstrRootDirectory c str       FALSE            return   GetLastError                         return 0      int main       int         iRC                    0    std  string strDirectoryToDelete    c   mydir          Delete  c  mydir  without deleting the subdirectories   iRC   DeleteDirectory strDirectoryToDelete  false     if iRC          std  cout  lt  lt   Error    lt  lt  iRC  lt  lt  std  endl      return -1            Delete  c  mydir  and its subdirectories   iRC   DeleteDirectory strDirectoryToDelete     if iRC          std  cout  lt  lt   Error    lt  lt  iRC  lt  lt  std  endl      return -1            Wait for keystroke    getch       return 0      Source  http   www codeguru com forum showthread php t 239271

[c++] How to delete a folder in C++?

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