Deleting all files in a directory with Python
Use os.chdir
to change directory .
Use glob.glob
to generate a list of file names which end it '.bak'. The elements of the list are just strings.
Then you could use os.unlink
to remove the files. (PS. os.unlink
and os.remove
are synonyms for the same function.)
#!/usr/bin/env python
import glob
import os
directory='/path/to/dir'
os.chdir(directory)
files=glob.glob('*.bak')
for filename in files:
os.unlink(filename)
In Python 3.5, os.scandir
is better if you need to check for file attributes or type - see os.DirEntry
for properties of the object that's returned by the function.
import os
for file in os.scandir(path):
if file.name.endswith(".bak"):
os.unlink(file.path)
This also doesn't require changing directories since each DirEntry
already includes the full path to the file.
Via os.listdir
and os.remove
:
import os
filelist = [ f for f in os.listdir(mydir) if f.endswith(".bak") ]
for f in filelist:
os.remove(os.path.join(mydir, f))
Using only a single loop:
for f in os.listdir(mydir):
if not f.endswith(".bak"):
continue
os.remove(os.path.join(mydir, f))
Or via glob.glob
:
import glob, os, os.path
filelist = glob.glob(os.path.join(mydir, "*.bak"))
for f in filelist:
os.remove(f)
Be sure to be in the correct directory, eventually using os.chdir
.
you can create a function. Add maxdepth as you like for traversing subdirectories.
def findNremove(path,pattern,maxdepth=1):
cpath=path.count(os.sep)
for r,d,f in os.walk(path):
if r.count(os.sep) - cpath <maxdepth:
for files in f:
if files.endswith(pattern):
try:
print "Removing %s" % (os.path.join(r,files))
#os.remove(os.path.join(r,files))
except Exception,e:
print e
else:
print "%s removed" % (os.path.join(r,files))
path=os.path.join("/home","dir1","dir2")
findNremove(path,".bak")