fs.rm() and/or fs.rmdir(path, recursive)?

[Ryan Gahl]

I had a need to delete a directory that wasn't empty, and had to resort to child_process.exec("rm -r " + dirName). So that leads me to the main Q: why is there no fs.rm() and fs.rmRecursive() or the like? How are people deleting files? Secondarily, assuming fs.rm() were implemented, would a patch be welcome to fs.rmdir() that enabled a bool param to make it delete recursively (which would of course use).

I'm not sure what the best implementation would be, but in general am just wondering what gives with file deletion... thanks.

-rg

[Ryan Gahl]

...found .unlink via help from an IRC dude... but am still curious about the recursive case. 

[Fabian Jakobs]

Hi,

I have implemented a sync and async version of rmTree. See this gist
<http://gist.github.com/443774>. If there is interest I can prepare a
patch for node's fs module.

Best Fabian

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[Ryan Gahl]

+1 interest.

[Fabian Jakobs]

OK, I'll prepare something next week.

[Aaron Heckmann]

I don't have the link handy but I believe isaacs has a rm -rf module
in npm somewhere.

--
Aaron
http://clickdummy.net

[Isaac Schlueter]

In npm I use this:
http://github.com/isaacs/npm/blob/master/lib/utils/rm-rf.js

If you've installed npm, you can get at it this way:

var rm = require("npm/utils/rm-rf")

but of course, you probably want to just bundle it in your own app, so
you don't depend on npm unnecessarily.

--i

[r...@tinyclouds.org]

On Fri, Jun 18, 2010 at 7:34 AM, Ryan Gahl <ryan...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I had a need to delete a directory that wasn't empty, and had to resort to
> child_process.exec("rm -r " + dirName). So that leads me to the main Q: why
> is there no fs.rm() and fs.rmRecursive() or the like?

Because there is no syscall for a recursive delete. After 0.2 i may
add some convenience functions like this.

[Ryan Gahl]

On Fri, Jun 18, 2010 at 3:07 PM, <r...@tinyclouds.org> wrote:

Because there is no syscall for a recursive delete. After 0.2 i may
add some convenience functions like this.

Gotcha. Thanks. I'll either pull in Isaacs or Fabian's helpers or just stick with child_process.exec for now.

[Fabian Jakobs]

What about adding a flag to rmdir, which toggles whether delete is recursive.

rmdir = function(path, recursive, callback)

I think this makes sense but it will break the API and the one to one
mapping to the posix system calls. The other solution would be to add
a fs.rm function, which acts similar to the unix "rm" command. Would
you accept a patch for any of those?

Best Fabian