How to delete the contents of a folder

Question

How can I delete the contents of a local folder in Python   The current project is for Windows  but I would like to see  nix also

User · Answer

You can simply do this   import os import glob  files   glob glob   YOUR PATH     for f in files      os remove f    You can of course use an other filter in you path  for example    YOU PATH   txt for removing all text files in a directory

User · Answer

I used to solve the problem this way   import shutil import os  shutil rmtree dirpath  os mkdir dirpath

User · Answer

You might be better off using os walk   for this   os listdir   doesn t distinguish files from directories and you will quickly get into trouble trying to unlink these  There is a good example of using os walk   to recursively remove a directory here  and hints on how to adapt it to your circumstances

User · Answer

You might be better off using os walk   for this   os listdir   doesn t distinguish files from directories and you will quickly get into trouble trying to unlink these  There is a good example of using os walk   to recursively remove a directory here  and hints on how to adapt it to your circumstances

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import os  shutil folder     path to folder  for filename in os listdir folder       file path   os path join folder  filename      try          if os path isfile file path  or os path islink file path               os unlink file path          elif os path isdir file path               shutil rmtree file path      except Exception as e          print  Failed to delete  s  Reason   s     file path  e

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I had to remove files from 3 separate folders inside a single parent directory   directory    folderA       file1    folderB       file2    folderC       file3   This simple code did the trick for me   I m on Unix   import os import glob  folders   glob glob    path to parentdir     for fo in folders    file   glob glob f  fo        for f in file      os remove f    Hope this helps

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Using rmtree and recreating the folder could work  but I have run into errors when deleting and immediately recreating folders on network drives   The proposed solution using walk does not work as it uses rmtree to remove folders and then may attempt to use os unlink on the files that were previously in those folders   This causes an error   The posted glob solution will also attempt to delete non-empty folders  causing errors   I suggest you use   folder path     path to folder  for file object in os listdir folder path       file object path   os path join folder path  file object      if os path isfile file object path  or os path islink file object path           os unlink file object path      else          shutil rmtree file object path

User · Answer

You can delete the folder itself  as well as all its contents  using shutil rmtree   import shutil shutil rmtree   path to folder        shutil rmtree path  ignore errors False  onerror None          Delete an entire directory tree  path must point to a directory  but not a symbolic link to a directory   If ignore errors is true  errors resulting from failed removals will be ignored  if false or omitted  such errors are handled by calling a handler specified by onerror or  if that is omitted  they raise an exception

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I used to solve the problem this way   import shutil import os  shutil rmtree dirpath  os mkdir dirpath

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Notes  in case someone down voted my answer  I have something to explain here    Everyone likes short  n  simple answers  However  sometimes the reality is not so simple  Back to my answer  I know shutil rmtree   could be used to delete a directory tree  I ve used it many times in my own projects  But you must realize that the directory itself will also be deleted by shutil rmtree    While this might be acceptable for some  it s not a valid answer for deleting the contents of a folder  without side effects   I ll show you an example of the side effects  Suppose that you have a directory with customized owner and mode bits  where there are a lot of contents  Then you delete it with shutil rmtree   and rebuild it with os mkdir    And you ll get an empty directory with default  inherited  owner and mode bits instead  While you might have the privilege to delete the contents and even the directory  you might not be able to set back the original owner and mode bits on the directory  e g  you re not a superuser   Finally  be patient and read the code  It s long and ugly  in sight   but proven to be reliable and efficient  in use       Here s a long and ugly  but reliable and efficient solution   It resolves a few problems which are not addressed by the other answerers    It correctly handles symbolic links  including not calling shutil rmtree   on a symbolic link  which will pass the os path isdir   test if it links to a directory  even the result of os walk   contains symbolic linked directories as well   It handles read-only files nicely    Here s the code  the only useful function is clear dir      import os import stat import shutil     http   stackoverflow com questions 1889597 deleting-directory-in-python def  remove readonly fn  path   excinfo         Handle read-only files and directories     if fn is os rmdir          os chmod path   stat S IWRITE          os rmdir path       elif fn is os remove          os lchmod path   stat S IWRITE          os remove path     def force remove file or symlink path        try          os remove path       except OSError          os lchmod path   stat S IWRITE          os remove path       Code from shutil rmtree   def is regular dir path        try          mode   os lstat path   st mode     except os error          mode   0     return stat S ISDIR mode    def clear dir path        if is regular dir path              Given path is a directory  clear its content         for name in os listdir path                fullpath   os path join path   name              if is regular dir fullpath                   shutil rmtree fullpath  onerror  remove readonly              else                  force remove file or symlink fullpath      else            Given path is a file or a symlink            Raise an exception here to avoid accidentally clearing the content           of a symbolic linked directory          raise OSError  Cannot call clear dir   on a symbolic link

User · Answer

Answer for a limited  specific situation  assuming you want to delete the files while maintainig the subfolders tree  you could use a recursive algorithm   import os  def recursively remove files f       if os path isfile f           os unlink f      elif os path isdir f           for fi in os listdir f               recursively remove files os path join f  fi    recursively remove files my directory    Maybe slightly off-topic  but I think many would find it useful

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To delete all the files inside the directory as well as its sub-directories  without removing the folders themselves  simply do this   import os mypath    my folder   Enter your path here for root  dirs  files in os walk mypath       for file in files          os remove os path join root  file

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This should do the trick just using the OS module to list and then remove   import os DIR   os list  Folder   for i in range len DIR        os remove  Folder  chr 92  i    Worked for me  any problems let me know

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Expanding on mhawke s answer this is what I ve implemented  It removes all the content of a folder but not the folder itself  Tested on Linux with files  folders and symbolic links  should work on Windows as well   import os import shutil  for root  dirs  files in os walk   path to folder        for f in files          os unlink os path join root  f       for d in dirs          shutil rmtree os path join root  d

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As a oneliner   import os    Python 2 7 map  os unlink   os path join  mydir f  for f in os listdir mydir        Python 3  list  map  os unlink   os path join  mydir f  for f in os listdir mydir         A more robust solution accounting for files and directories as well would be  2 7    def rm f       if os path isdir f   return os rmdir f      if os path isfile f   return os unlink f      raise TypeError   must be either file or directory   map  rm   os path join  mydir f  for f in os listdir mydir

User · Answer

This    removes all symbolic links   dead links links to directories links to files  removes subdirectories does not remove the parent directory   Code   for filename in os listdir dirpath       filepath   os path join dirpath  filename      try          shutil rmtree filepath      except OSError          os remove filepath    As many other answers  this does not try to adjust permissions to enable removal of files directories

User · Answer

If you are using a  nix system  why not leverage the system command   import os path    folder to clean  os system  rm -rf  s      path

User · Answer

Answer for a limited  specific situation  assuming you want to delete the files while maintainig the subfolders tree  you could use a recursive algorithm   import os  def recursively remove files f       if os path isfile f           os unlink f      elif os path isdir f           for fi in os listdir f               recursively remove files os path join f  fi    recursively remove files my directory    Maybe slightly off-topic  but I think many would find it useful

User · Answer

You can delete the folder itself  as well as all its contents  using shutil rmtree   import shutil shutil rmtree   path to folder        shutil rmtree path  ignore errors False  onerror None          Delete an entire directory tree  path must point to a directory  but not a symbolic link to a directory   If ignore errors is true  errors resulting from failed removals will be ignored  if false or omitted  such errors are handled by calling a handler specified by onerror or  if that is omitted  they raise an exception

User · Answer

Yet Another Solution   import sh sh rm sh glob   path to folder

User · Answer

If you are using a  nix system  why not leverage the system command   import os path    folder to clean  os system  rm -rf  s      path

User · Answer

You might be better off using os walk   for this   os listdir   doesn t distinguish files from directories and you will quickly get into trouble trying to unlink these  There is a good example of using os walk   to recursively remove a directory here  and hints on how to adapt it to your circumstances

User · Answer

Use the method bellow to remove the contents of a directory  not the directory itself   import os import shutil  def remove contents path       for c in os listdir path           full path   os path join path  c          if os path isfile full path               os remove full path          else              shutil rmtree full path

User · Answer

Yet Another Solution   import sh sh rm sh glob   path to folder

User · Answer

import os  shutil folder     path to folder  for filename in os listdir folder       file path   os path join folder  filename      try          if os path isfile file path  or os path islink file path               os unlink file path          elif os path isdir file path               shutil rmtree file path      except Exception as e          print  Failed to delete  s  Reason   s     file path  e

User · Answer

Expanding on mhawke s answer this is what I ve implemented  It removes all the content of a folder but not the folder itself  Tested on Linux with files  folders and symbolic links  should work on Windows as well   import os import shutil  for root  dirs  files in os walk   path to folder        for f in files          os unlink os path join root  f       for d in dirs          shutil rmtree os path join root  d

User · Answer

Well  I think this code is working  It will not delete the folder and you can use this code to delete files having the particular extension    import os import glob  files   glob glob r path     for items in files      os remove items

User · Answer

Use the method bellow to remove the contents of a directory  not the directory itself   import os import shutil  def remove contents path       for c in os listdir path           full path   os path join path  c          if os path isfile full path               os remove full path          else              shutil rmtree full path

User · Answer

import os import shutil    Gather directory contents contents    os path join target dir  i  for i in os listdir target dir      Iterate and remove each item in the appropriate manner  os remove i  if os path isfile i  or os path islink i  else shutil rmtree i  for i in contents    An earlier comment also mentions using os scandir in Python 3 5    For example   import os import shutil  with os scandir target dir  as entries      for entry in entries          if entry is file   or entry is symlink                os remove entry path          elif entry is dir                shutil rmtree entry path

User · Answer

You can delete the folder itself  as well as all its contents  using shutil rmtree   import shutil shutil rmtree   path to folder        shutil rmtree path  ignore errors False  onerror None          Delete an entire directory tree  path must point to a directory  but not a symbolic link to a directory   If ignore errors is true  errors resulting from failed removals will be ignored  if false or omitted  such errors are handled by calling a handler specified by onerror or  if that is omitted  they raise an exception

User · Answer

I konw it s an old thread but I have found something interesting from the official site of python  Just for sharing another idea for removing of all contents in a directory  Because I have some problems of authorization when using shutil rmtree   and I don t want to remove the directory and recreate it  The address original is http   docs python org 2 library os html os walk  Hope that could help someone   def emptydir top       if top        or top           return     else          for root  dirs  files in os walk top  topdown False               for name in files                  os remove os path join root  name               for name in dirs                  os rmdir os path join root  name

User · Answer

Notes  in case someone down voted my answer  I have something to explain here    Everyone likes short  n  simple answers  However  sometimes the reality is not so simple  Back to my answer  I know shutil rmtree   could be used to delete a directory tree  I ve used it many times in my own projects  But you must realize that the directory itself will also be deleted by shutil rmtree    While this might be acceptable for some  it s not a valid answer for deleting the contents of a folder  without side effects   I ll show you an example of the side effects  Suppose that you have a directory with customized owner and mode bits  where there are a lot of contents  Then you delete it with shutil rmtree   and rebuild it with os mkdir    And you ll get an empty directory with default  inherited  owner and mode bits instead  While you might have the privilege to delete the contents and even the directory  you might not be able to set back the original owner and mode bits on the directory  e g  you re not a superuser   Finally  be patient and read the code  It s long and ugly  in sight   but proven to be reliable and efficient  in use       Here s a long and ugly  but reliable and efficient solution   It resolves a few problems which are not addressed by the other answerers    It correctly handles symbolic links  including not calling shutil rmtree   on a symbolic link  which will pass the os path isdir   test if it links to a directory  even the result of os walk   contains symbolic linked directories as well   It handles read-only files nicely    Here s the code  the only useful function is clear dir      import os import stat import shutil     http   stackoverflow com questions 1889597 deleting-directory-in-python def  remove readonly fn  path   excinfo         Handle read-only files and directories     if fn is os rmdir          os chmod path   stat S IWRITE          os rmdir path       elif fn is os remove          os lchmod path   stat S IWRITE          os remove path     def force remove file or symlink path        try          os remove path       except OSError          os lchmod path   stat S IWRITE          os remove path       Code from shutil rmtree   def is regular dir path        try          mode   os lstat path   st mode     except os error          mode   0     return stat S ISDIR mode    def clear dir path        if is regular dir path              Given path is a directory  clear its content         for name in os listdir path                fullpath   os path join path   name              if is regular dir fullpath                   shutil rmtree fullpath  onerror  remove readonly              else                  force remove file or symlink fullpath      else            Given path is a file or a symlink            Raise an exception here to avoid accidentally clearing the content           of a symbolic linked directory          raise OSError  Cannot call clear dir   on a symbolic link

User · Answer

This should do the trick just using the OS module to list and then remove   import os DIR   os list  Folder   for i in range len DIR        os remove  Folder  chr 92  i    Worked for me  any problems let me know

User · Answer

As a oneliner   import os    Python 2 7 map  os unlink   os path join  mydir f  for f in os listdir mydir        Python 3  list  map  os unlink   os path join  mydir f  for f in os listdir mydir         A more robust solution accounting for files and directories as well would be  2 7    def rm f       if os path isdir f   return os rmdir f      if os path isfile f   return os unlink f      raise TypeError   must be either file or directory   map  rm   os path join  mydir f  for f in os listdir mydir

User · Answer

import os import shutil    Gather directory contents contents    os path join target dir  i  for i in os listdir target dir      Iterate and remove each item in the appropriate manner  os remove i  if os path isfile i  or os path islink i  else shutil rmtree i  for i in contents    An earlier comment also mentions using os scandir in Python 3 5    For example   import os import shutil  with os scandir target dir  as entries      for entry in entries          if entry is file   or entry is symlink                os remove entry path          elif entry is dir                shutil rmtree entry path

User · Answer

This    removes all symbolic links   dead links links to directories links to files  removes subdirectories does not remove the parent directory   Code   for filename in os listdir dirpath       filepath   os path join dirpath  filename      try          shutil rmtree filepath      except OSError          os remove filepath    As many other answers  this does not try to adjust permissions to enable removal of files directories

User · Answer

You can delete the folder itself  as well as all its contents  using shutil rmtree   import shutil shutil rmtree   path to folder        shutil rmtree path  ignore errors False  onerror None          Delete an entire directory tree  path must point to a directory  but not a symbolic link to a directory   If ignore errors is true  errors resulting from failed removals will be ignored  if false or omitted  such errors are handled by calling a handler specified by onerror or  if that is omitted  they raise an exception

User · Answer

the easiest way to delete all files in a folder remove all files  import os files   os listdir yourFilePath  for f in files      os remove yourFilePath   f

User · Answer

import os  shutil folder     path to folder  for filename in os listdir folder       file path   os path join folder  filename      try          if os path isfile file path  or os path islink file path               os unlink file path          elif os path isdir file path               shutil rmtree file path      except Exception as e          print  Failed to delete  s  Reason   s     file path  e

User · Answer

I resolved the issue with rmtree makedirs by adding time sleep   between   if os path isdir folder location       shutil rmtree folder location   time sleep  5   os makedirs folder location  0o777

User · Answer

I had to remove files from 3 separate folders inside a single parent directory   directory    folderA       file1    folderB       file2    folderC       file3   This simple code did the trick for me   I m on Unix   import os import glob  folders   glob glob    path to parentdir     for fo in folders    file   glob glob f  fo        for f in file      os remove f    Hope this helps

User · Answer

You can simply do this   import os import glob  files   glob glob   YOUR PATH     for f in files      os remove f    You can of course use an other filter in you path  for example    YOU PATH   txt for removing all text files in a directory

User · Answer

import os  shutil folder     path to folder  for filename in os listdir folder       file path   os path join folder  filename      try          if os path isfile file path  or os path islink file path               os unlink file path          elif os path isdir file path               shutil rmtree file path      except Exception as e          print  Failed to delete  s  Reason   s     file path  e

User · Answer

Pretty intuitive way of doing it   import shutil  os   def remove folder contents path       shutil rmtree path      os makedirs path    remove folder contents   path to folder

User · Answer

Using rmtree and recreating the folder could work  but I have run into errors when deleting and immediately recreating folders on network drives   The proposed solution using walk does not work as it uses rmtree to remove folders and then may attempt to use os unlink on the files that were previously in those folders   This causes an error   The posted glob solution will also attempt to delete non-empty folders  causing errors   I suggest you use   folder path     path to folder  for file object in os listdir folder path       file object path   os path join folder path  file object      if os path isfile file object path  or os path islink file object path           os unlink file object path      else          shutil rmtree file object path

User · Answer

Well  I think this code is working  It will not delete the folder and you can use this code to delete files having the particular extension    import os import glob  files   glob glob r path     for items in files      os remove items

User · Answer

To delete all the files inside the directory as well as its sub-directories  without removing the folders themselves  simply do this   import os mypath    my folder   Enter your path here for root  dirs  files in os walk mypath       for file in files          os remove os path join root  file

User · Answer

Pretty intuitive way of doing it   import shutil  os   def remove folder contents path       shutil rmtree path      os makedirs path    remove folder contents   path to folder

User · Answer

I resolved the issue with rmtree makedirs by adding time sleep   between   if os path isdir folder location       shutil rmtree folder location   time sleep  5   os makedirs folder location  0o777

User · Answer

I m surprised nobody has mentioned the awesome pathlib to do this job   If you only want to remove files in a directory it can be a oneliner  from pathlib import Path   f unlink   for f in Path   path to folder   glob      if f is file       To also recursively remove directories you can write something like this   from pathlib import Path from shutil import rmtree  for path in Path   path to folder   glob              if path is file            path unlink       elif path is dir            rmtree path

User · Answer

I m surprised nobody has mentioned the awesome pathlib to do this job   If you only want to remove files in a directory it can be a oneliner  from pathlib import Path   f unlink   for f in Path   path to folder   glob      if f is file       To also recursively remove directories you can write something like this   from pathlib import Path from shutil import rmtree  for path in Path   path to folder   glob              if path is file            path unlink       elif path is dir            rmtree path

User · Answer

I konw it s an old thread but I have found something interesting from the official site of python  Just for sharing another idea for removing of all contents in a directory  Because I have some problems of authorization when using shutil rmtree   and I don t want to remove the directory and recreate it  The address original is http   docs python org 2 library os html os walk  Hope that could help someone   def emptydir top       if top        or top           return     else          for root  dirs  files in os walk top  topdown False               for name in files                  os remove os path join root  name               for name in dirs                  os rmdir os path join root  name

User · Answer

You might be better off using os walk   for this   os listdir   doesn t distinguish files from directories and you will quickly get into trouble trying to unlink these  There is a good example of using os walk   to recursively remove a directory here  and hints on how to adapt it to your circumstances

User · Answer

the easiest way to delete all files in a folder remove all files  import os files   os listdir yourFilePath  for f in files      os remove yourFilePath   f

[python] How to delete the contents of a folder?

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