function to delete a folder

poojithas · 12-23-2010, 11:09 PM

Hi,

Is there any function to delete a folder which has few files in it ?

I tried rimdir() bit it can only delete empty folders; unlink() can not delete directory entries. any other function ?

Cultist · 12-23-2010, 11:20 PM

yep.

In the terminal, type

Quote:

rm -rf [directory]

and the directory and all its contents will be deleted.

poojithas · 12-24-2010, 12:04 AM

I'm looking for function to use in C program ( using gcc ).

paulsm4 · 12-24-2010, 12:22 AM

How about this:

Code:

system ("rm -rf xyz");

poojithas · 12-24-2010, 06:17 AM

The system() call is very resource intensive as it does the fork() behind. Unfortunately I can't use it. Any other function ?

raviteja_s · 12-24-2010, 10:40 AM

try this

rimdir()
{

echo `rm -rf dirname`
return
}

catkin · 12-24-2010, 11:20 AM

The operative part of the rm command source is line 343:

Code:

enum RM_status status = rm (file, &x);

Checking back to the includes, the most promisingly named is remove.h which, as hoped, has the rm function declaration. From there it is a short step browsing the git repository tree to remove.c where the rm function is defined from line 592 onwards. That source suggests it is non-trivial to do what you want!

Nylex · 12-24-2010, 11:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by raviteja_s

try this

rimdir()
{

echo `rm -rf dirname`
return
}

Please read and understand what is being asked before giving an answer. The OP has already said that they want to do this in C, not Bash.