delete

Disk utility functions for deleting files and folders.

Functions

rmtree(path, *args, **kwargs)
unlink_or_rename_to_trash(path)	If files are in use, especially on windows, we can't remove them.
remove_empty_parent_paths(path)
rm_rf(path[, max_retries, trash, clean_empty_parents])	Completely delete path
delete_trash(prefix)
backoff_rmdir(dirpath[, max_tries])
path_is_clean(path)	Sometimes we can't completely remove a path because files are considered in use

rmtree(path, *args, **kwargs)

unlink_or_rename_to_trash(path)

If files are in use, especially on windows, we can't remove them. The fallback path is to rename them (but keep their folder the same), which maintains the file handle validity. See comments at: https://serverfault.com/a/503769

remove_empty_parent_paths(path)

rm_rf(path, max_retries=5, trash=True, clean_empty_parents=False, *args, **kw)

Completely delete path max_retries is the number of times to retry on failure. The default is 5. This only applies to deleting a directory. If removing path fails and trash is True, files will be moved to the trash directory.

delete_trash(prefix)

backoff_rmdir(dirpath, max_tries=MAX_TRIES)

path_is_clean(path)

Sometimes we can't completely remove a path because files are considered in use by python (hardlinking confusion). For our tests, it is sufficient that either the folder doesn't exist, or nothing but temporary file copies are left.