How do I delete a file or folder in Python?

Use one of these methods:

• pathlib.Path.unlink() removes a file or symbolic link.

• pathlib.Path.rmdir() removes an empty directory.

• shutil.rmtree() deletes a directory and all its contents.

On Python 3.3 and below, you can use these methods instead of the pathlib ones:

• os.remove() removes a file.

• os.unlink() removes a symbolic link.

• os.rmdir() removes an empty directory.

Python syntax to delete a file

import os
os.remove("/tmp/<file_name>.txt")

or

import os
os.unlink("/tmp/<file_name>.txt")

or

pathlib Library for Python version >= 3.4

file_to_rem = pathlib.Path("/tmp/<file_name>.txt")
file_to_rem.unlink()

Path.unlink(missing_ok=False)

Unlink method used to remove the file or the symbolik link.

• If missing_ok is false (the default), FileNotFoundError is raised if the path does not exist.
• If missing_ok is true, FileNotFoundError exceptions will be ignored (same behavior as the POSIX rm -f command).
• Changed in version 3.8: The missing_ok parameter was added.

Best practice

First, check if the file or folder exists and then delete it. You can achieve this in two ways:

1. os.path.isfile("/path/to/file")
2. Use exception handling.

EXAMPLE for os.path.isfile

#!/usr/bin/python
import os

myfile = "/tmp/foo.txt"
# If file exists, delete it.
if os.path.isfile(myfile):
    os.remove(myfile)
else:
    # If it fails, inform the user.
    print("Error: %s file not found" % myfile)

Exception Handling

#!/usr/bin/python
import os

# Get input.
myfile = raw_input("Enter file name to delete: ")

# Try to delete the file.
try:
    os.remove(myfile)
except OSError as e:
    # If it fails, inform the user.
    print("Error: %s - %s." % (e.filename, e.strerror))

Respective output

Enter file name to delete : demo.txt
Error: demo.txt - No such file or directory.

Enter file name to delete : rrr.txt
Error: rrr.txt - Operation not permitted.

Enter file name to delete : foo.txt

Python syntax to delete a folder

shutil.rmtree()

Example for shutil.rmtree()

#!/usr/bin/python
import os
import sys
import shutil

# Get directory name
mydir = raw_input("Enter directory name: ")

# Try to remove the tree; if it fails, throw an error using try...except.
try:
    shutil.rmtree(mydir)
except OSError as e:
    print("Error: %s - %s." % (e.filename, e.strerror))

Use

shutil.rmtree(path[, ignore_errors[, onerror]])

(See complete documentation on shutil) and/or

os.remove

and

os.rmdir

(Complete documentation on os.)

Here is a robust function that uses both os.remove and shutil.rmtree:

def remove(path):
    """ param <path> could either be relative or absolute. """
    if os.path.isfile(path) or os.path.islink(path):
        os.remove(path)  # remove the file
    elif os.path.isdir(path):
        shutil.rmtree(path)  # remove dir and all contains
    else:
        raise ValueError("file {} is not a file or dir.".format(path))