Golang program to delete empty and non-empty directory

In golang, we can use os and dir packages to delete a given directory. Here we are using two examples to demonstrate to deletion of an empty and non-empty directory using os.open, os.Removeall.

Syntax

os.Open

This function is a part of os package. It is used to open a file to read. It takes one input i.e. the filename which will be opened.

os.RemoveAll

It removes the directory and its contents completely. The function takes the name of the directory as an argument.

dr.ReaddirNames 

This function is useful to read the file names from a directory. It takes the directory name as the argument.

Algorithm

• Step 1 − Create a package main and declare fmt(format package), os package in the program where main produces executable codes and fmt helps in formatting input and output.

• Step 2 − Use os.Open function to access the directory and save its reference in the dr variable.

• Step 3 − In the next Step, using dr.Readdirnames read the names of each file and subdirectory in the directory.

• Step 4 − Use os.RemoveAll to delete each file and subdirectory after iterating over their names in a loop.

• Step 5 − Use os.Remove to remove the directory itself.

Example 1

In this example, we will use os package functions to delete the empty and non-empty directory.

package main
import (
   "fmt"
   "os"
)

func delete_directory(path string) error {
   dr, err := os.Open(path)  //open the path using os package function
   if err != nil {
      return err
   }
   defer dr.Close()
   names, err := dr.Readdirnames(-1)  
   if err != nil {
      return err
   }
   for _, name := range names {
      err = os.RemoveAll(path + "/" + name)  //remove the path
      if err != nil {
         return err
      }
   }
   return os.Remove(path)
}

func main() {
   path := "/path/to/directory"

   err := delete_directory(path)
   if err != nil {
      fmt.Println("Error deleting directory:", err)
      os.Exit(1)
   }
   fmt.Println("Directory is deleted successfully") //if directory is deleted print the success message
}

Output

Directory is deleted successfully

Example 2

In this example, errorf function will be used to print error if any error occurs while deleting the directory.

package main
import (
   "fmt"
   "os"
)

func delete_directory(path string) error {
   errs := os.RemoveAll(path) //use the os package function to delete dir
   if errs != nil {
      return fmt.Errorf("Error deleting directory: %v", errs)
   }
   return nil
}

func main() {
   path := "/path/to/directory"

   errs := delete_directory(path)
   if errs != nil {
      fmt.Println(errs)  //print the error if directory is not deleted successfully 
      os.Exit(1)
   }
   fmt.Println("Directory is deleted successfully") //print the success message if directory is deleted successfully 
}

Output

Directory is deleted successfully

Conclusion

We executed the program of deleting empty and non-empty directory using two examples. In the first example we used os package functions and Readdirnames whereas in the second example we used errorf function to execute the program.