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_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.

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

Example

Run this code

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

Possible output:

Deleted 2 files or directories

Language
Headers
Freestanding and hosted implementations
Named requirements
Language support library
Concepts library (C++20)
Diagnostics library
Utilities library
Strings library
Containers library
Algorithms library
Iterators library
Numerics library
Input/output library
Localizations library
Regular expressions library (C++11)
Atomic operations library (C++11)
Thread support library (C++11)
Filesystem library (C++17)
Technical Specifications