PathLib recursively remove directory?

Question

Is there any way to remove a directory and its contents in the PathLib module? With path.unlink() it only removes a file, with path.rmdir() the directory has to be empty. Is there no way to do it in one function call?

Asked By: Jasonca1

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Source

Answer 1

As you already know, the only two Path methods for removing files/directories are .unlink() and .rmdir() and neither does what you want.

Pathlib is a module that provides object oriented paths across different OS’s, it isn’t meant to have lots of diverse methods.

The aim of this library is to provide a simple hierarchy of classes to
handle filesystem paths and the common operations users do over them.

The "uncommon" file system alterations, such as recursively removing a directory, is stored in different modules. If you want to recursively remove a directory, you should use the shutil module. (It works with Path instances too!)

import shutil
import pathlib
import os  # for checking results

print(os.listdir())
# ["a_directory", "foo.py", ...]

path = pathlib.Path("a_directory")

shutil.rmtree(path)
print(os.listdir())
# ["foo.py", ...]

Answered By: Taku

Answer 2

If you don’t mind using a third-party library give path a try.
Its API is similar to pathlib.Path, but provides some additional methods, including Path.rmtree() to recursively delete a directory tree.

Answered By: AXO

Answer 3

Otherwise, you can try this one if you want only pathlib:

from pathlib import Path


def rm_tree(pth: Path):
    for child in pth.iterdir():
        if child.is_file():
            child.unlink()
        else:
            rm_tree(child)
    pth.rmdir()

rm_tree(your_path)

Answered By: Rami

Answer 4

Here’s a pure pathlib implementation:

from pathlib import Path


def rm_tree(pth):
    pth = Path(pth)
    for child in pth.glob('*'):
        if child.is_file():
            child.unlink()
        else:
            rm_tree(child)
    pth.rmdir()

Answered By: MatteoLacki

Answer 5

def rm_rf(basedir):
    if isinstance(basedir,str): basedir = pathlib.Path(basedir)
    if not basedir.is_dir(): return
    for p in reversed(list(basedir.rglob("*"))):
        if p.is_file(): p.unlink()
        elif p.is_dir(): p.rmdir()
    basedir.rmdir()

Answered By: zalavari

Answer 6

You might use pathlib3x – it offers a backport of the latest (at the date of writing this answer Python 3.10.a0) Python pathlib for Python 3.6 or newer, and a few additional functions like rmtree

>>> python -m pip install pathlib3x

>>> import pathlib3x as pathlib

>>> my_path = pathlib.Path('c:/tmp/some_directory')
>>> my_path.rmtree(ignore_errors=True)

you can find it on github or PyPi

^{Disclaimer: I’m the author of the pathlib3x library.}

Answered By: bitranox

Answer 7

Simple and effective:

def rmtree(f: Path):
    if f.is_file():
        f.unlink()
    else:
        for child in f.iterdir():
            rmtree(child)
        f.rmdir()

Answered By: maf88

PathLib recursively remove directory?

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