Image upload remove old files - is there a better way then mine?

[Detectedstealth]

Hi,

For my application I created a custom ImageField (code below) as I need to automatically generate a few different sets of thumbnails. I read the posts on the requests for Django to delete old images when uploading, and was blown away to see the request for that feature turned down. I still don't know why anyone would want the old images that you have zero access to (from ui) laying around when you change to a new one. 

Anyway, this is my attempt to solve that oversight for my current application. First I tried calling the ImageField.delete if on an instance of the old image however that deletes the old and doesn't save the updated new image. So I created a new method that only removes. (This code is currently working how I need it to work)

On to the code:

fields.py

class ProfileThumbnailImageFieldFile(ImageFieldFile):

    # code left out for creating the thumbnails

    def remove_old_files(self):

        if os.path.exists(self.path):

            os.remove(self.path)

        if os.path.exists(self.thumb_path_64x64):

            os.remove(self.thumb_path_64x64)

class ThumbnailImageField(ImageField):

    attr_class = ThumbnailImageFieldFile # This class definition left out and is overridden for this example in __init__ when creating the field

models.py

class CustomUser(AbstractBaseUser):

    picture = ThumbnailImageField(upload_to='upload_path', attr_class=ProfileThumbnailImageFieldFile)

  

    def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):

        super(CustomUser, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)

        # Store a reference of the original picture to allow for removing it alter if updated.

        if self.picture:

            self._original_picture = self.picture

        else:

            self._original_picture = None

    def save(self, *args, **kwargs):

        if self._original_picture:

            if self.picture and self.picture != self._original_picture:

                self._original_picture.remove_old_files()

        super(CustomUser, self).save(*args, **kwargs)

What has been some other ways to solve this kind of problem?