PathLib recursively remove directory?

Is there any way to remove a directory and it’s 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?

Solution 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", ...]

Solution 2:

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()

Solution 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)

Solution 4:

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.

Solution 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()