Deleting files by type in Python on Windows

Question

I know how to delete single files, however I am lost in my implementation of how to delete all files in a directory of one type.

Say the directory is \myfolder

I want to delete all files that are .config files, but nothing to the other ones. How would I do this?

Thanks Kindly

Did you mean you want to delete all *files* that are .config? — Kenan Banks, Jun 13 '09 at 19:07
do you want to delete all .config files under a certain path? if you just want to delete a .config file, then you can just do os.remove(".config") — Dan Wolchonok, Jun 13 '09 at 19:14
Yes I want to delete all .config files that are contained in a certain directory. — , Jun 13 '09 at 19:15
A directory and all it's subdirectories, or just the directory? — Kenan Banks, Jun 13 '09 at 19:22
The question is a duplicate, a neat explanation is provided here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1995373/deleting-all-files-in-a-directory-with-python — Werner Trelawney, Mar 30 '15 at 13:33

score 17 · Answer 1 · edited Nov 22 '12 at 00:40

17

Use the glob module:

import os
from glob import glob

for f in glob ('myfolder/*.config'):
   os.unlink (f)

edited Nov 22 '12 at 00:40

Mark Hildreth

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answered Jun 13 '09 at 19:13

eduffy

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+1: Yep, glob is the right approach here (if you don't want to walk sub-directories, of course -- that would need os.walk). – Alex Martelli Jun 13 '09 at 19:16

score 5 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 13 '09 at 19:10

5

I would do something like the following:

import os
files = os.listdir("myfolder")
for f in files:
  if not os.path.isdir(f) and ".config" in f:
    os.remove(f)

It lists the files in a directory and if it's not a directory and the filename has ".config" anywhere in it, delete it. You'll either need to be in the same directory as myfolder, or give it the full path to the directory. If you need to do this recursively, I would use the os.walk function.

answered Jun 13 '09 at 19:10

Dan Wolchonok

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I actually meant files, not folders. Sorry Dan – Jun 13 '09 at 19:12
Not your fault - but this answer is now irrelevant due to OP editing the question. – Kenan Banks Jun 13 '09 at 19:12
note that this will delete files like 'my.config.bak'. Probably not what the OP wants. – Kenan Banks Jun 13 '09 at 20:08

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 13 '09 at 19:16

Here ya go:

import os

# Return all files in dir, and all its subdirectories, ending in pattern
def gen_files(dir, pattern):
   for dirname, subdirs, files in os.walk(dir):
      for f in files:
         if f.endswith(pattern):
            yield os.path.join(dirname, f)


# Remove all files in the current dir matching *.config
for f in gen_files('.', '.config'):
   os.remove(f)

Note also that gen_files can be easily rewritten to accept a tuple of patterns, since str.endswith accepts a tuple

Deleting files by type in Python on Windows

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