Delete directories recursively in Java

Question

Is there a way to delete entire directories recursively in Java?

In the normal case it is possible to delete an empty directory. However when it comes to deleting entire directories with contents, it is not that simple anymore.

How do you delete entire directories with contents in Java?

Answer 1

Below code recursively delete all contents in a given folder.

boolean deleteDirectory(File directoryToBeDeleted) {
    File[] allContents = directoryToBeDeleted.listFiles();
    if (allContents != null) {
        for (File file : allContents) {
            deleteDirectory(file);
        }
    }
    return directoryToBeDeleted.delete();
}

Answer 2

With Java 7, we can finally do this with reliable symlink detection. (I don't consider Apache's commons-io to have reliable symlink detection at this time, as it doesn't handle links on Windows created with mklink.)

For the sake of history, here's a pre-Java 7 answer, which follows symlinks.

void delete(File f) throws IOException {
  if (f.isDirectory()) {
    for (File c : f.listFiles())
      delete(c);
  }
  if (!f.delete())
    throw new FileNotFoundException("Failed to delete file: " + f);
}

Answer 3

Here is a bare bones main method that accepts a command line argument, you may need to append your own error checking or mold it to how you see fit.

import java.io.File;
import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
import java.io.IOException;

public class DeleteFiles {

/**
 * @param intitial arguments take in a source to read from and a 
 * destination to read to
 */
    public static void main(String[] args)
                     throws FileNotFoundException,IOException {
        File src = new File(args[0]);
        if (!src.exists() ) {
            System.out.println("FAILURE!");
        }else{
            // Gathers files in directory
            File[] a = src.listFiles();
            for (int i = 0; i < a.length; i++) {
                //Sends files to recursive deletion method
                fileDelete(a[i]);
            }
            // Deletes original source folder
            src.delete();
            System.out.println("Success!");
        }
    }

    /**
     * @param srcFile Source file to examine
     * @throws FileNotFoundException if File not found
     * @throws IOException if File not found
     */
    private static void fileDelete(File srcFile)
                     throws FileNotFoundException, IOException {
        // Checks if file is a directory
        if (srcFile.isDirectory()) {
            //Gathers files in directory
            File[] b = srcFile.listFiles();
            for (int i = 0; i < b.length; i++) {
                //Recursively deletes all files and sub-directories
                fileDelete(b[i]);
            }
            // Deletes original sub-directory file
            srcFile.delete();
        } else {
            srcFile.delete();
        }
    }
}

I hope that helps!

Answer 4

A solution with a stack and without recursive methods:

File dir = new File("/path/to/dir");
File[] currList;
Stack<File> stack = new Stack<File>();
stack.push(dir);
while (! stack.isEmpty()) {
    if (stack.lastElement().isDirectory()) {
        currList = stack.lastElement().listFiles();
        if (currList.length > 0) {
            for (File curr: currList) {
                stack.push(curr);
            }
        } else {
            stack.pop().delete();
        }
    } else {
        stack.pop().delete();
    }
}

Answer 5

Well, let's assume an example,

import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;

public class DeleteDirectory
{
   private static final String folder = "D:/project/java";

   public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException
   {
      File fl = new File(folder);
      if(!fl.exists()) // checking if directory exists
      {
         System.out.println("Sorry!! directory doesn't exist.");
      }
      else
      {
         DeleteDirectory dd = new DeleteDirectory();
         dd.deleteDirectory(fl);
      }
   }

   public void deleteDirectory(File file) throws IOException
   {
      if(file.isDirectory())
      {
         if(file.list().length == 0)
         { 
            deleteEmptyDirectory(file); // here if directory is empty delete we are deleting
         }
         else
         {
            File fe[] = file.listFiles();
            for(File deleteFile : fe)
            {
               deleteDirectory(deleteFile); // recursive call
            }
            if(file.list().length == 0)
            {
               deleteEmptyDirectory(file);
            }
         }
      }
      else
      {
         file.delete();
         System.out.println("File deleted : " + file.getAbsolutePath());
      }
   }

   private void deleteEmptyDirectory(File fi)
   {
      fi.delete();
      System.out.println("Directory deleted : " + fi.getAbsolutePath());
   }
}

For more information refer below resources

Delete directory

Answer 6

Just saw my solution is more or less the same as erickson's, just packaged as a static method. Drop this somewhere, it's much lighter weight than installing all of Apache Commons for something that (as you can see) is quite simple.

public class FileUtils {
    /**
     * By default File#delete fails for non-empty directories, it works like "rm". 
     * We need something a little more brutual - this does the equivalent of "rm -r"
     * @param path Root File Path
     * @return true iff the file and all sub files/directories have been removed
     * @throws FileNotFoundException
     */
    public static boolean deleteRecursive(File path) throws FileNotFoundException{
        if (!path.exists()) throw new FileNotFoundException(path.getAbsolutePath());
        boolean ret = true;
        if (path.isDirectory()){
            for (File f : path.listFiles()){
                ret = ret && deleteRecursive(f);
            }
        }
        return ret && path.delete();
    }
}