Related
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.
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))
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.
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.
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))
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)
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)
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.
Using os.scandir and context manager protocol in Python 3.6+:
import os
import shutil
with os.scandir(target_dir) as entries:
for entry in entries:
if entry.is_dir() and not entry.is_symlink():
shutil.rmtree(entry.path)
else:
os.remove(entry.path)
Earlier versions of Python:
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
[shutil.rmtree(i) if os.path.isdir(i) and not os.path.islink(i) else os.remove(i) for i in contents]
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")
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)) )
I used to solve the problem this way:
import shutil
import os
shutil.rmtree(dirpath)
os.mkdir(dirpath)
To delete all files inside a folder a I use:
import os
for i in os.listdir():
os.remove(i)
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, topdown=False):
for file in files:
os.remove(os.path.join(root, file))
# Add this block to remove folders
for dir in dirs:
os.rmdir(os.path.join(root, dir))
# Add this line to remove the root folder at the end
os.rmdir(mypath)
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.
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)
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))
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.
Yet Another Solution:
import sh
sh.rm(sh.glob('/path/to/folder/*'))
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)
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')
use this function
import os
import glob
def truncate(path):
files = glob.glob(path+'/*.*')
for f in files:
os.remove(f)
truncate('/my/path')
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)
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
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)
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)
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!
I am trying to sort my files for school automatically but when I try this:
import os, sys
path = "/Sorting for School/"
dirs = os.listdir(path)
#print all dirs
for file in dirs:
print file
Although there are two txt documents in dir but when I run this the output is:
[]
Thanks
The code is fine. You must be querying a wrong path.
/dir/ means a subdirectory named dir in the root directory (in UNIX) or in the root directory of the current drive (in Windows).
Your code is fine. The following should work too:
import os
path = "/Sorting for School/"
def handle_err(err):
print err
for root,dirs,files in os.walk(path,onerror=handle_err):
for name in files:
print(name)
How do I obtain the short path of a file in Windows using python ?
I am using the following code ,
#!/usr/bin/python
import os
import sys
fileList = []
rootdir = sys.argv[1]
for root, subFolders, files in os.walk(rootdir):
for file in files:
fileList.append(os.path.join(root,file))
for File in fileList:
print File
I guess you are looking for this:
http://docs.activestate.com/activepython/2.5/pywin32/win32api__GetShortPathName_meth.html
Although you will need the win32api module for this.
Also see this link:
http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-win32/2006-May/004697.html
import win32api
long_file_name='C:\Program Files\I am a file'
short_file_name=win32api.GetShortPathName(long_file_name)
I have a few files I want to delete, they have the same name at the start but have different version numbers. Does anyone know how to delete files using the start of their name?
Eg.
version_1.1
version_1.2
Is there a way of delting any file that starts with the name version?
Thanks
import os, glob
for filename in glob.glob("mypath/version*"):
os.remove(filename)
Substitute the correct path (or . (= current directory)) for mypath. And make sure you don't get the path wrong :)
This will raise an Exception if a file is currently in use.
If you really want to use Python, you can just use a combination of os.listdir(), which returns a listing of all the files in a certain directory, and os.remove().
I.e.:
my_dir = # enter the dir name
for fname in os.listdir(my_dir):
if fname.startswith("version"):
os.remove(os.path.join(my_dir, fname))
However, as other answers pointed out, you really don't have to use Python for this, the shell probably natively supports such an operation.
In which language?
In bash (Linux / Unix) you could use:
rm version*
or in batch (Windows / DOS) you could use:
del version*
If you want to write something to do this in Python it would be fairly easy - just look at the documentation for regular expressions.
edit:
just for reference, this is how to do it in Perl:
opendir (folder, "./") || die ("Cannot open directory!");
#files = readdir (folder);
closedir (folder);
unlink foreach (grep /^version/, #files);
import os
os.chdir("/home/path")
for file in os.listdir("."):
if os.path.isfile(file) and file.startswith("version"):
try:
os.remove(file)
except Exception,e:
print e
The following function will remove all files and folders in a directory which start with a common string:
import os
import shutil
def cleanse_folder(directory, prefix):
for item in os.listdir(directory):
path = os.path.join(directory, item)
if item.startswith(prefix):
if os.path.isfile(path):
os.remove(path)
elif os.path.isdir(os.path.join(directory, item)):
shutil.rmtree(path)
else:
print("A simlink or something called {} was not deleted.".format(item))
import os
import re
directory = "./uploaded"
pattern = "1638813371180"
files_in_directory = os.listdir(directory)
filtered_files = [file for file in files_in_directory if ( re.search(pattern,file))]
for file in filtered_files:
path_to_file = os.path.join(directory, file)
os.remove(path_to_file)
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.
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))
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.
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.
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))
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)
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)
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.
Using os.scandir and context manager protocol in Python 3.6+:
import os
import shutil
with os.scandir(target_dir) as entries:
for entry in entries:
if entry.is_dir() and not entry.is_symlink():
shutil.rmtree(entry.path)
else:
os.remove(entry.path)
Earlier versions of Python:
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
[shutil.rmtree(i) if os.path.isdir(i) and not os.path.islink(i) else os.remove(i) for i in contents]
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")
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)) )
I used to solve the problem this way:
import shutil
import os
shutil.rmtree(dirpath)
os.mkdir(dirpath)
To delete all files inside a folder a I use:
import os
for i in os.listdir():
os.remove(i)
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, topdown=False):
for file in files:
os.remove(os.path.join(root, file))
# Add this block to remove folders
for dir in dirs:
os.rmdir(os.path.join(root, dir))
# Add this line to remove the root folder at the end
os.rmdir(mypath)
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.
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)
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))
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.
Yet Another Solution:
import sh
sh.rm(sh.glob('/path/to/folder/*'))
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)
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')
use this function
import os
import glob
def truncate(path):
files = glob.glob(path+'/*.*')
for f in files:
os.remove(f)
truncate('/my/path')
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)
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
Other methods I tried with os and glob package, I had permission issue but with this I had no permission issue plus one less package usage. Probably fail if sub directory exist.
import os
def remove_files_in_folder(folderPath):
# loop through all the contents of folder
for filename in os.listdir(folderPath):
# remove the file
os.remove(f"{folderPath}/{filename}")
remove_files_in_folder('./src/inputFiles/tmp')
Folder structure
root
|
+-- main.py
|
+-- src
|
+-- inputFiles
|
+-- tmp
|
+-- file1.txt
+-- img1.png
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)
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)
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!