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 need to iterate through all .asm files inside a given directory and do some actions on them.
How can this be done in a efficient way?
Python 3.6 version of the above answer, using os - assuming that you have the directory path as a str object in a variable called directory_in_str:
import os
directory = os.fsencode(directory_in_str)
for file in os.listdir(directory):
filename = os.fsdecode(file)
if filename.endswith(".asm") or filename.endswith(".py"):
# print(os.path.join(directory, filename))
continue
else:
continue
Or recursively, using pathlib:
from pathlib import Path
pathlist = Path(directory_in_str).glob('**/*.asm')
for path in pathlist:
# because path is object not string
path_in_str = str(path)
# print(path_in_str)
Use rglob to replace glob('**/*.asm') with rglob('*.asm')
This is like calling Path.glob() with '**/' added in front of the given relative pattern:
from pathlib import Path
pathlist = Path(directory_in_str).rglob('*.asm')
for path in pathlist:
# because path is object not string
path_in_str = str(path)
# print(path_in_str)
Original answer:
import os
for filename in os.listdir("/path/to/dir/"):
if filename.endswith(".asm") or filename.endswith(".py"):
# print(os.path.join(directory, filename))
continue
else:
continue
This will iterate over all descendant files, not just the immediate children of the directory:
import os
for subdir, dirs, files in os.walk(rootdir):
for file in files:
#print os.path.join(subdir, file)
filepath = subdir + os.sep + file
if filepath.endswith(".asm"):
print (filepath)
You can try using glob module:
import glob
for filepath in glob.iglob('my_dir/*.asm'):
print(filepath)
and since Python 3.5 you can search subdirectories as well:
glob.glob('**/*.txt', recursive=True) # => ['2.txt', 'sub/3.txt']
From the docs:
The glob module finds all the pathnames matching a specified pattern according to the rules used by the Unix shell, although results are returned in arbitrary order. No tilde expansion is done, but *, ?, and character ranges expressed with [] will be correctly matched.
Since Python 3.5, things are much easier with os.scandir() and 2-20x faster (source):
with os.scandir(path) as it:
for entry in it:
if entry.name.endswith(".asm") and entry.is_file():
print(entry.name, entry.path)
Using scandir() instead of listdir() can significantly increase the
performance of code that also needs file type or file attribute
information, because os.DirEntry objects expose this information if
the operating system provides it when scanning a directory. All
os.DirEntry methods may perform a system call, but is_dir() and
is_file() usually only require a system call for symbolic links;
os.DirEntry.stat() always requires a system call on Unix but only
requires one for symbolic links on Windows.
Python 3.4 and later offer pathlib in the standard library. You could do:
from pathlib import Path
asm_pths = [pth for pth in Path.cwd().iterdir()
if pth.suffix == '.asm']
Or if you don't like list comprehensions:
asm_paths = []
for pth in Path.cwd().iterdir():
if pth.suffix == '.asm':
asm_pths.append(pth)
Path objects can easily be converted to strings.
Here's how I iterate through files in Python:
import os
path = 'the/name/of/your/path'
folder = os.fsencode(path)
filenames = []
for file in os.listdir(folder):
filename = os.fsdecode(file)
if filename.endswith( ('.jpeg', '.png', '.gif') ): # whatever file types you're using...
filenames.append(filename)
filenames.sort() # now you have the filenames and can do something with them
NONE OF THESE TECHNIQUES GUARANTEE ANY ITERATION ORDERING
Yup, super unpredictable. Notice that I sort the filenames, which is important if the order of the files matters, i.e. for video frames or time dependent data collection. Be sure to put indices in your filenames though!
You can use glob for referring the directory and the list :
import glob
import os
#to get the current working directory name
cwd = os.getcwd()
#Load the images from images folder.
for f in glob.glob('images\*.jpg'):
dir_name = get_dir_name(f)
image_file_name = dir_name + '.jpg'
#To print the file name with path (path will be in string)
print (image_file_name)
To get the list of all directory in array you can use os :
os.listdir(directory)
I'm not quite happy with this implementation yet, I wanted to have a custom constructor that does DirectoryIndex._make(next(os.walk(input_path))) such that you can just pass the path you want a file listing for. Edits welcome!
import collections
import os
DirectoryIndex = collections.namedtuple('DirectoryIndex', ['root', 'dirs', 'files'])
for file_name in DirectoryIndex(*next(os.walk('.'))).files:
file_path = os.path.join(path, file_name)
I really like using the scandir directive that is built into the os library. Here is a working example:
import os
i = 0
with os.scandir('/usr/local/bin') as root_dir:
for path in root_dir:
if path.is_file():
i += 1
print(f"Full path is: {path} and just the name is: {path.name}")
print(f"{i} files scanned successfully.")
Get all the .asm files in a directory by doing this.
import os
path = "path_to_file"
file_type = '.asm'
for filename in os.listdir(path=path):
if filename.endswith(file_type):
print(filename)
print(f"{path}/{filename}")
# do something below
I don't understand why some answers are complicated. This is how I would do it with Python 2.7. Replace DIRECTORY_TO_LOOP with the directory you want to use.
import os
DIRECTORY_TO_LOOP = '/var/www/files/'
for root, dirs, files in os.walk(DIRECTORY_TO_LOOP, topdown=False):
for name in files:
print(os.path.join(root, name))
I need to iterate through all .asm files inside a given directory and do some actions on them.
How can this be done in a efficient way?
Python 3.6 version of the above answer, using os - assuming that you have the directory path as a str object in a variable called directory_in_str:
import os
directory = os.fsencode(directory_in_str)
for file in os.listdir(directory):
filename = os.fsdecode(file)
if filename.endswith(".asm") or filename.endswith(".py"):
# print(os.path.join(directory, filename))
continue
else:
continue
Or recursively, using pathlib:
from pathlib import Path
pathlist = Path(directory_in_str).glob('**/*.asm')
for path in pathlist:
# because path is object not string
path_in_str = str(path)
# print(path_in_str)
Use rglob to replace glob('**/*.asm') with rglob('*.asm')
This is like calling Path.glob() with '**/' added in front of the given relative pattern:
from pathlib import Path
pathlist = Path(directory_in_str).rglob('*.asm')
for path in pathlist:
# because path is object not string
path_in_str = str(path)
# print(path_in_str)
Original answer:
import os
for filename in os.listdir("/path/to/dir/"):
if filename.endswith(".asm") or filename.endswith(".py"):
# print(os.path.join(directory, filename))
continue
else:
continue
This will iterate over all descendant files, not just the immediate children of the directory:
import os
for subdir, dirs, files in os.walk(rootdir):
for file in files:
#print os.path.join(subdir, file)
filepath = subdir + os.sep + file
if filepath.endswith(".asm"):
print (filepath)
You can try using glob module:
import glob
for filepath in glob.iglob('my_dir/*.asm'):
print(filepath)
and since Python 3.5 you can search subdirectories as well:
glob.glob('**/*.txt', recursive=True) # => ['2.txt', 'sub/3.txt']
From the docs:
The glob module finds all the pathnames matching a specified pattern according to the rules used by the Unix shell, although results are returned in arbitrary order. No tilde expansion is done, but *, ?, and character ranges expressed with [] will be correctly matched.
Since Python 3.5, things are much easier with os.scandir() and 2-20x faster (source):
with os.scandir(path) as it:
for entry in it:
if entry.name.endswith(".asm") and entry.is_file():
print(entry.name, entry.path)
Using scandir() instead of listdir() can significantly increase the
performance of code that also needs file type or file attribute
information, because os.DirEntry objects expose this information if
the operating system provides it when scanning a directory. All
os.DirEntry methods may perform a system call, but is_dir() and
is_file() usually only require a system call for symbolic links;
os.DirEntry.stat() always requires a system call on Unix but only
requires one for symbolic links on Windows.
Python 3.4 and later offer pathlib in the standard library. You could do:
from pathlib import Path
asm_pths = [pth for pth in Path.cwd().iterdir()
if pth.suffix == '.asm']
Or if you don't like list comprehensions:
asm_paths = []
for pth in Path.cwd().iterdir():
if pth.suffix == '.asm':
asm_pths.append(pth)
Path objects can easily be converted to strings.
Here's how I iterate through files in Python:
import os
path = 'the/name/of/your/path'
folder = os.fsencode(path)
filenames = []
for file in os.listdir(folder):
filename = os.fsdecode(file)
if filename.endswith( ('.jpeg', '.png', '.gif') ): # whatever file types you're using...
filenames.append(filename)
filenames.sort() # now you have the filenames and can do something with them
NONE OF THESE TECHNIQUES GUARANTEE ANY ITERATION ORDERING
Yup, super unpredictable. Notice that I sort the filenames, which is important if the order of the files matters, i.e. for video frames or time dependent data collection. Be sure to put indices in your filenames though!
You can use glob for referring the directory and the list :
import glob
import os
#to get the current working directory name
cwd = os.getcwd()
#Load the images from images folder.
for f in glob.glob('images\*.jpg'):
dir_name = get_dir_name(f)
image_file_name = dir_name + '.jpg'
#To print the file name with path (path will be in string)
print (image_file_name)
To get the list of all directory in array you can use os :
os.listdir(directory)
I'm not quite happy with this implementation yet, I wanted to have a custom constructor that does DirectoryIndex._make(next(os.walk(input_path))) such that you can just pass the path you want a file listing for. Edits welcome!
import collections
import os
DirectoryIndex = collections.namedtuple('DirectoryIndex', ['root', 'dirs', 'files'])
for file_name in DirectoryIndex(*next(os.walk('.'))).files:
file_path = os.path.join(path, file_name)
I really like using the scandir directive that is built into the os library. Here is a working example:
import os
i = 0
with os.scandir('/usr/local/bin') as root_dir:
for path in root_dir:
if path.is_file():
i += 1
print(f"Full path is: {path} and just the name is: {path.name}")
print(f"{i} files scanned successfully.")
Get all the .asm files in a directory by doing this.
import os
path = "path_to_file"
file_type = '.asm'
for filename in os.listdir(path=path):
if filename.endswith(file_type):
print(filename)
print(f"{path}/{filename}")
# do something below
I don't understand why some answers are complicated. This is how I would do it with Python 2.7. Replace DIRECTORY_TO_LOOP with the directory you want to use.
import os
DIRECTORY_TO_LOOP = '/var/www/files/'
for root, dirs, files in os.walk(DIRECTORY_TO_LOOP, topdown=False):
for name in files:
print(os.path.join(root, name))
I'm trying to rename some files in a directory using Python.
Say I have a file called CHEESE_CHEESE_TYPE.*** and want to remove CHEESE_ so my resulting filename would be CHEESE_TYPE
I'm trying to use the os.path.split but it's not working properly. I have also considered using string manipulations, but have not been successful with that either.
Use os.rename(src, dst) to rename or move a file or a directory.
$ ls
cheese_cheese_type.bar cheese_cheese_type.foo
$ python
>>> import os
>>> for filename in os.listdir("."):
... if filename.startswith("cheese_"):
... os.rename(filename, filename[7:])
...
>>>
$ ls
cheese_type.bar cheese_type.foo
Here's a script based on your newest comment.
#!/usr/bin/env python
from os import rename, listdir
badprefix = "cheese_"
fnames = listdir('.')
for fname in fnames:
if fname.startswith(badprefix*2):
rename(fname, fname.replace(badprefix, '', 1))
The following code should work. It takes every filename in the current directory, if the filename contains the pattern CHEESE_CHEESE_ then it is renamed. If not nothing is done to the filename.
import os
for fileName in os.listdir("."):
os.rename(fileName, fileName.replace("CHEESE_CHEESE_", "CHEESE_"))
Assuming you are already in the directory, and that the "first 8 characters" from your comment hold true always. (Although "CHEESE_" is 7 characters... ? If so, change the 8 below to 7)
from glob import glob
from os import rename
for fname in glob('*.prj'):
rename(fname, fname[8:])
I have the same issue, where I want to replace the white space in any pdf file to a dash -.
But the files were in multiple sub-directories. So, I had to use os.walk().
In your case for multiple sub-directories, it could be something like this:
import os
for dpath, dnames, fnames in os.walk('/path/to/directory'):
for f in fnames:
os.chdir(dpath)
if f.startswith('cheese_'):
os.rename(f, f.replace('cheese_', ''))
Try this:
import os
import shutil
for file in os.listdir(dirpath):
newfile = os.path.join(dirpath, file.split("_",1)[1])
shutil.move(os.path.join(dirpath,file),newfile)
I'm assuming you don't want to remove the file extension, but you can just do the same split with periods.
This sort of stuff is perfectly fitted for IPython, which has shell integration.
In [1] files = !ls
In [2] for f in files:
newname = process_filename(f)
mv $f $newname
Note: to store this in a script, use the .ipy extension, and prefix all shell commands with !.
See also: http://ipython.org/ipython-doc/stable/interactive/shell.html
Here is a more general solution:
This code can be used to remove any particular character or set of characters recursively from all filenames within a directory and replace them with any other character, set of characters or no character.
import os
paths = (os.path.join(root, filename)
for root, _, filenames in os.walk('C:\FolderName')
for filename in filenames)
for path in paths:
# the '#' in the example below will be replaced by the '-' in the filenames in the directory
newname = path.replace('#', '-')
if newname != path:
os.rename(path, newname)
It seems that your problem is more in determining the new file name rather than the rename itself (for which you could use the os.rename method).
It is not clear from your question what the pattern is that you want to be renaming. There is nothing wrong with string manipulation. A regular expression may be what you need here.
import os
import string
def rename_files():
#List all files in the directory
file_list = os.listdir("/Users/tedfuller/Desktop/prank/")
print(file_list)
#Change current working directory and print out it's location
working_location = os.chdir("/Users/tedfuller/Desktop/prank/")
working_location = os.getcwd()
print(working_location)
#Rename all the files in that directory
for file_name in file_list:
os.rename(file_name, file_name.translate(str.maketrans("","",string.digits)))
rename_files()
This command will remove the initial "CHEESE_" string from all the files in the current directory, using renamer:
$ renamer --find "/^CHEESE_/" *
I was originally looking for some GUI which would allow renaming using regular expressions and which had a preview of the result before applying changes.
On Linux I have successfully used krename, on Windows Total Commander does renaming with regexes, but I found no decent free equivalent for OSX, so I ended up writing a python script which works recursively and by default only prints the new file names without making any changes. Add the '-w' switch to actually modify the file names.
#!/usr/bin/python
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
import os
import fnmatch
import sys
import shutil
import re
def usage():
print """
Usage:
%s <work_dir> <search_regex> <replace_regex> [-w|--write]
By default no changes are made, add '-w' or '--write' as last arg to actually rename files
after you have previewed the result.
""" % (os.path.basename(sys.argv[0]))
def rename_files(directory, search_pattern, replace_pattern, write_changes=False):
pattern_old = re.compile(search_pattern)
for path, dirs, files in os.walk(os.path.abspath(directory)):
for filename in fnmatch.filter(files, "*.*"):
if pattern_old.findall(filename):
new_name = pattern_old.sub(replace_pattern, filename)
filepath_old = os.path.join(path, filename)
filepath_new = os.path.join(path, new_name)
if not filepath_new:
print 'Replacement regex {} returns empty value! Skipping'.format(replace_pattern)
continue
print new_name
if write_changes:
shutil.move(filepath_old, filepath_new)
else:
print 'Name [{}] does not match search regex [{}]'.format(filename, search_pattern)
if __name__ == '__main__':
if len(sys.argv) < 4:
usage()
sys.exit(-1)
work_dir = sys.argv[1]
search_regex = sys.argv[2]
replace_regex = sys.argv[3]
write_changes = (len(sys.argv) > 4) and sys.argv[4].lower() in ['--write', '-w']
rename_files(work_dir, search_regex, replace_regex, write_changes)
Example use case
I want to flip parts of a file name in the following manner, i.e. move the bit m7-08 to the beginning of the file name:
# Before:
Summary-building-mobile-apps-ionic-framework-angularjs-m7-08.mp4
# After:
m7-08_Summary-building-mobile-apps-ionic-framework-angularjs.mp4
This will perform a dry run, and print the new file names without actually renaming any files:
rename_files_regex.py . "([^\.]+?)-(m\\d+-\\d+)" "\\2_\\1"
This will do the actual renaming (you can use either -w or --write):
rename_files_regex.py . "([^\.]+?)-(m\\d+-\\d+)" "\\2_\\1" --write
You can use os.system function for simplicity and to invoke bash to accomplish the task:
import os
os.system('mv old_filename new_filename')
This works for me.
import os
for afile in os.listdir('.'):
filename, file_extension = os.path.splitext(afile)
if not file_extension == '.xyz':
os.rename(afile, filename + '.abc')
What about this :
import re
p = re.compile(r'_')
p.split(filename, 1) #where filename is CHEESE_CHEESE_TYPE.***
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!