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

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

1) 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).

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

2) 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

The overload that does not take a std::error_code& parameter throws 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. The overload taking a std::error_code& parameter sets it to the OS API error code if an OS API call fails, and executes ec.clear() if no errors occur. Any overload not marked noexcept may throw std::bad_alloc if memory allocation fails.

Notes

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

Example

Run this code

#include <iostream>
#include <cstdint>
#include <filesystem>
namespace fs = std::filesystem;
 
int main()
{
    fs::path tmp = std::filesystem::temp_directory_path();
    std::filesystem::create_directories(tmp / "abcdef/example");
    std::uintmax_t n = fs::remove_all(tmp / "abcdef");
    std::cout << "Deleted " << n << " files or directories\n";
}

Possible output:

Deleted 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

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