Delete folder and all files/subdirectories

Question

How can I delete a folder with all it's files/subdirectories (recursive deletion) in C++?

Psychotechnics

Just a side node: There is a duplicate to this question, if you do not want to rely on boost, it is worth to have a look at the accepted answer there. – Seminal

Answer 1

Seriously:

system("rm -rf /path/to/directory")

Perhaps more what you're looking for, but unix specific:

/* Implement system( "rm -rf" ) */
    
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <limits.h>
#include <sys/stat.h>
#include <ftw.h>
#include <unistd.h>

/* Call unlink or rmdir on the path, as appropriate. */
int
rm(const char *path, const struct stat *s, int flag, struct FTW *f)
{
        int status;
        int (*rm_func)(const char *);
        (void)s;
        (void)f;
        rm_func = flag == FTW_DP ? rmdir : unlink;
        if( status = rm_func(path), status != 0 ){
                perror(path);
        } else if( getenv("VERBOSE") ){
                puts(path);
        }
        return status;
}


int
main(int argc, char **argv)
{
        (void)argc;
        while( *++argv ) {
                if( nftw(*argv, rm, OPEN_MAX, FTW_DEPTH) ){
                        perror(*argv);
                        return EXIT_FAILURE;
                }
        }
        return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

Sanfordsanfourd

How portable is system( "rm -rf /path/to/directory" )? Will it work on any *nix OS? Clearly won't work in Windows. – Inefficacy

It might be worth using FTW_MOUNT|FTW_PHYS|FTW_DEPTH instead of just FTW_DEPTH — that avoids disasters with symlinks and mounted file systems. See nftw() for details. – Scenario

Answer 2

You can use boost::remove_all from Boost.Filesystem.

Selfsuggestion

Answer 3

You can use ftw(), nftw(), readdir(), readdir_r() to traverse a directory and delete files recursively.
But since neither ftw(), nftw(), readdir() is thread-safe, I'll recommend readdir_r() instead if your program runs in a multi-threaded environment.

Wolfgang

Answer 4

Since C++17 the prefered answer to this would be to use

std::filesystem::remove_all(const std::filesystem::path& folder)

which deletes the content of the folder recursively and then finally deletes the folder, according to this.

Psychopathist

Answer 5

Standard C++ provides no means of doing this - you will have to use operating system specific code or a cross-platform library such as Boost.

Flatus