std::filesystem::remove, std::filesystem::remove_all

 

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Filesystem library (C++17)

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Technical specifications

Symbols index

External libraries

 

Filesystem library

Classes
filesystem::path filesystem::filesystem_error filesystem::directory_entry filesystem::directory_iterator filesystem::recursive_directory_iterator    filesystem::file_status filesystem::space_info	filesystem::file_type filesystem::file_time_type filesystem::perms filesystem::perm_options filesystem::copy_options filesystem::directory_options
Functions
filesystem::absolute filesystem::canonicalfilesystem::weakly_canonical filesystem::relativefilesystem::proximate filesystem::copy filesystem::copy_file filesystem::copy_symlink filesystem::create_directory filesystem::create_directories filesystem::create_hard_link filesystem::create_symlink filesystem::create_directory_symlink filesystem::current_path filesystem::temp_directory_path	filesystem::exists filesystem::equivalent filesystem::file_size filesystem::hard_link_count filesystem::last_write_time filesystem::permissions filesystem::read_symlink filesystem::remove filesystem::remove_all filesystem::rename filesystem::resize_file filesystem::space filesystem::status filesystem::symlink_status
File types
filesystem::is_block_file filesystem::is_character_file filesystem::is_directory filesystem::is_empty filesystem::status_known	filesystem::is_fifo filesystem::is_other filesystem::is_regular_file filesystem::is_socket filesystem::is_symlink

 

Defined in header <filesystem>
bool remove( const std::filesystem::path& p );	(1)	(since C++17)
bool remove( const std::filesystem::path& p, std::error_code& ec ) noexcept;	(2)	(since C++17)
std::uintmax_t remove_all( const std::filesystem::path& p );	(3)	(since C++17)
std::uintmax_t remove_all( const std::filesystem::path& p, std::error_code& ec );	(4)	(since C++17)

1,2) The file or empty directory identified by the path p is deleted as if by the POSIX remove. Symlinks are not followed (symlink is removed, not its target).

3,4) Deletes the contents of p (if it is a directory) and the contents of all its subdirectories, recursively, then deletes p itself as if by repeatedly applying the POSIX remove. Symlinks are not followed (symlink is removed, not its target).

Parameters

p	-	path to delete
ec	-	out-parameter for error reporting in the non-throwing overload.

Return value

1,2) true if the file was deleted, false if it did not exist. The overload that takes error_code& argument returns false on errors.

3,4) Returns the number of files and directories that were deleted (which may be zero if p did not exist to begin with). The overload that takes error_code& argument returns static_cast<std::uintmax_t>(-1) on error.

Exceptions

Any overload not marked noexcept may throw std::bad_alloc if memory allocation fails.

1,3) Throws std::filesystem::filesystem_error on underlying OS API errors, constructed with p as the first path argument and the OS error code as the error code argument.

2,4) Sets a std::error_code& parameter to the OS API error code if an OS API call fails, and executes ec.clear() if no errors occur.

Notes

On POSIX systems, this function typically calls unlink and rmdir as needed, on Windows DeleteFileW and RemoveDirectoryW.

If p did not exist, this function returns false and does not report an error.

Example

Run this code

#include <cstdint>
#include <filesystem>
#include <fstream>
#include <iostream>
 
int main()
{
    namespace fs = std::filesystem;
    std::cout << std::boolalpha;
 
    fs::path tmp{std::filesystem::temp_directory_path()};
 
    const auto O_O{"O_O"};
    std::ofstream{tmp / O_O} << O_O; // creates file containing O_O
    std::cout << "remove(): " << fs::remove(tmp / O_O) << '\n'; // success
    std::cout << "remove(): " << fs::remove(tmp / O_O) << '\n'; // fail
 
    std::filesystem::create_directories(tmp / "abcdef/example");
    const std::uintmax_t n{fs::remove_all(tmp / "abcdef")};
    std::cout << "remove_all(): " << n << " files or directories\n";
}

Possible output:

remove(): true
remove(): false
remove_all(): 2 files or directories

Defect reports

The following behavior-changing defect reports were applied retroactively to previously published C++ standards.

DR	Applied to	Behavior as published	Correct behavior
LWG 3014	C++17	error_code overload of remove_all marked noexcept but can allocate memory	noexcept removed

See also

remove

erases a file (function)