Python Delete File – Step-by-Step Guide

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Python has several built-in modules that allow you to delete a file or remove directories.

This tutorial is a step-by-step guide to remove a file or directory using 3 different methods.

Using osmodule
Using shutilmodule
Using pathlibmodule

Methods to Delete Files in Python

Let’s look at each of these modules and the functions we can utilize to delete a directory or files.

Method 1 – Using os Module

The os module is a built-in utility available in both Python 2 and 3 versions, and it provides functions to interact easily with the operating system.

Delete a file

os.remove() is used to remove or delete a file in Python. This method cannot remove a directory, and if you try giving a directory as a path, it throws an OSError.

_Syntax – _os.remove(path, *, dir_fd = None)

Parameters: It takes a file path as an input parameter, and the path can be of a type string. The function does not return anything.

# Import os module
import os

filePath='/Projects/Tryouts/test/python.txt'
# check whethere the provided filepath exists and if its of file type
if os.path.isfile(filePath):
    # delete the file using remove function
    os.remove(filePath)
    print("Successfully deleted a file")
else:    
    print("File doesn't exists!")

Output

Successfully deleted a file

Note – If you do not check for isFile or specify an invalid path to the os.remove()method, Python will throw a FileNotFoundError as shown below.

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "c:\Projects\Tryouts\main.py", line 3, in <module>
    os.remove(filePath)
FileNotFoundError: [WinError 2] The system cannot find the file specified: '/Projects/Tryouts/test/path_does_not_exsist.txt'

Delete a directory

The os module has an os.rmdir() method to remove or delete an empty directory. ** If the directory does not exist or is found not empty, you will get an **OSError.

Syntax: os.rmdir(path, *, dir_fd = None)

Parameters: It takes a folder path as an input parameter, and the path can be of a type string. The function does not return anything.

Note – If you do not check for isdiror specify an invalid path to the os.rmdir() *method, Python will throw a *FileNotFoundError as shown below.

# Import os module
import os

folderPath='/Projects/Tryouts/test/'
# check whethere the provided folder path exists and if its of directory type
if os.path.isdir(folderPath):
    # delete the folder using rmdir function
    os.rmdir(folderPath)
    print("Successfully deleted a folder")
else:    
    print("Folder doesn't exists!")

Output

Successfully deleted a folder

Method 2 – Using shutil module

The drawback in the os module was you cannot delete an entire directory with contents inside it. If you want to delete a directory and remove all the files inside it recursively, you should use shutil.rmtree() method.

Syntax: shutil.rmtree(path, ignore_errors=False, onerror=None)

Parameters:

path – A path like an object representing a folder path
ignore_errors – If set to true, any error that occurs while removing will be ignored. The default value is false.
oneerror: If _ignore_errors_are false or omitted, such errors are handled by calling a handler specified by onerror.

# Import os module
import shutil

# Directory that needs to be deleted. Removes all the files and folders inside the path
folderpath='/Projects/Tryouts/test/'
shutil.rmtree(folderpath)

Method 3 – Using pathlib module

If you are using the Python 3.4+ version, you could leverage the pathlib module, which comes as a built-in module. This module offers classes representing filesystem paths with semantics appropriate for different operating systems.

There are 2 main functions over here –

Remove a file

pathlib has a method called Path.unlink() which removes a file or symoblic link.

Syntax – Path.unlink(missing_ok=False)

If missing_ok is false (the default), **FileNotFoundError **is raised if the path does not exist.

# Import os module
import pathlib

# removes the current file path or symbolic link
file_to_remove= pathlib.Path('/Projects/Tryouts/test/python.txt')
file_to_remove.unlink()

Remove a directory

pathlib has a method called Path.rmdir() which removes the specified directory. The directory must be empty else it will raise an OSError.

# Import os module
import pathlib

# removes the current directory if its empty
folder_to_remove= pathlib.Path('/Projects/Tryouts/test/')
folder_to_remove.rmdir()