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

Two ways to fail with symlinks and the above code... and don't know the solution.

Way #1

Run this to create a test:

echo test > testfile
mkdir dirtodelete
ln -s badlink dirtodelete/badlinktodelete

Here you see your test file and test directory:

$ ls testfile dirtodelete
testfile

dirtodelete:
linktodelete

Then run your commons-io deleteDirectory(). It crashes saying the file is not found. Not sure what the other examples do here. The Linux rm command would simply delete the link, and rm -r on the directory would also.

Exception in thread "main" java.io.FileNotFoundException: File does not exist: /tmp/dirtodelete/linktodelete

Way #2

Run this to create a test:

mkdir testdir
echo test > testdir/testfile
mkdir dirtodelete
ln -s ../testdir dirtodelete/dirlinktodelete

Here you see your test file and test directory:

$ ls dirtodelete testdir
dirtodelete:
dirlinktodelete

testdir:
testfile

Then run your commons-io deleteDirectory() or the example code people posted. It deletes not only the directory, but your testfile which is outside the directory being deleted. (It dereferences the directory implicitly, and deletes the contents). rm -r would delete the link only. You need to use something like this delete the dereferenced files: "find -L dirtodelete -type f -exec rm {} \;".

$ ls dirtodelete testdir
ls: cannot access dirtodelete: No such file or directory
testdir:

Answer 2

Without Commons IO and < Java SE 7

public static void deleteRecursive(File path){
            path.listFiles(new FileFilter() {
                @Override
                public boolean accept(File pathname) {
                    if (pathname.isDirectory()) {
                        pathname.listFiles(this);
                        pathname.delete();
                    } else {
                        pathname.delete();
                    }
                    return false;
                }
            });
            path.delete();
        }

Answer 3

public void deleteRecursive(File path){
    File[] c = path.listFiles();
    System.out.println("Cleaning out folder:" + path.toString());
    for (File file : c){
        if (file.isDirectory()){
            System.out.println("Deleting file:" + file.toString());
            deleteRecursive(file);
            file.delete();
        } else {
            file.delete();
        }
    }
    path.delete();
}

Answer 4

In Java 7+ you can use Files class. Code is very simple:

Path directory = Paths.get("/tmp");
Files.walkFileTree(directory, new SimpleFileVisitor<Path>() {
   @Override
   public FileVisitResult visitFile(Path file, BasicFileAttributes attrs) throws IOException {
       Files.delete(file);
       return FileVisitResult.CONTINUE;
   }

   @Override
   public FileVisitResult postVisitDirectory(Path dir, IOException exc) throws IOException {
       Files.delete(dir);
       return FileVisitResult.CONTINUE;
   }
});

Answer 5

Java 7 added support for walking directories with symlink handling:

import java.nio.file.*;

public static void removeRecursive(Path path) throws IOException
{
    Files.walkFileTree(path, new SimpleFileVisitor<Path>()
    {
        @Override
        public FileVisitResult visitFile(Path file, BasicFileAttributes attrs)
                throws IOException
        {
            Files.delete(file);
            return FileVisitResult.CONTINUE;
        }

        @Override
        public FileVisitResult visitFileFailed(Path file, IOException exc) throws IOException
        {
            // try to delete the file anyway, even if its attributes
            // could not be read, since delete-only access is
            // theoretically possible
            Files.delete(file);
            return FileVisitResult.CONTINUE;
        }

        @Override
        public FileVisitResult postVisitDirectory(Path dir, IOException exc) throws IOException
        {
            if (exc == null)
            {
                Files.delete(dir);
                return FileVisitResult.CONTINUE;
            }
            else
            {
                // directory iteration failed; propagate exception
                throw exc;
            }
        }
    });
}

I use this as a fallback from platform-specific methods (in this untested code):

public static void removeDirectory(Path directory) throws IOException
{
    // does nothing if non-existent
    if (Files.exists(directory))
    {
        try
        {
            // prefer OS-dependent directory removal tool
            if (SystemUtils.IS_OS_WINDOWS)
                Processes.execute("%ComSpec%", "/C", "RD /S /Q \"" + directory + '"');
            else if (SystemUtils.IS_OS_UNIX)
                Processes.execute("/bin/rm", "-rf", directory.toString());
        }
        catch (ProcessExecutionException | InterruptedException e)
        {
            // fallback to internal implementation on error
        }

        if (Files.exists(directory))
            removeRecursive(directory);
    }
}

(SystemUtils is from Apache Commons Lang. Processes is private but its behavior should be obvious.)

Answer 6

Maybe a solution for this problem might be to reimplement the delete method of the File class using the code from erickson's answer:

public class MyFile extends File {

  ... <- copy constructor

  public boolean delete() {
    if (f.isDirectory()) {
      for (File c : f.listFiles()) {
        return new MyFile(c).delete();
      }
    } else {
        return f.delete();
    }
  }
}