Delete an entire directory tree with Python | shutil.rmtree () method

Michael Zippo

shutil.rmtree () is used to delete an entire directory tree, the path must point to a directory (not a symbolic link to a directory).

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

Parameters:
path: A path -like object representing a file path. A path-like object is either a string or bytes object representing a path.
ignore_errors: If ignore_errors is true, errors resulting from failed removals will be ignored.
oneerror: If ignore_errors is false or omitted, such errors are handled by calling a handler specified by onerror.

Example 1. and the subdirectories are as follows.

# Parent directory:

# Directory inside parent directory:

# File inside subdirectory:

We want to delete the authors directory. Below is the implementation.

# Python program for demonstration
# shutil.rmtree ()

import shutil

import os

# location

location = "D: / Pycharm projects / Python.Engineering /"

# catalog

dir = "Authors"

# path

path = os.path.join ( (location, dir )

# deleting a directory
shutil.rmtree (path)

Exit:

Example 2: by passing ignore_errors = False .

# Python program for demonstration
# shutil.rmtree ()

import shutil

import os

# location

location = "D: / Pycharm projects / Python.Engineering /"

# catalog

dir = "Authors"

# path

path = os.path.join ( (location, dir )

# deleting the directory

shutil.rmtree (path, ignore_errors = False )

# make ignore_errors = True won’t boost
# a FileNotFoundError

Exit:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File “D: / Pycharm projects / gfg / gfg.py”, line 16, in
shutil.rmtree (path, ignore_errors = False)
File “C: UsersNikhil AggarwalAppDataLocalProgramsPythonPython38-32libshutil.py”, line 730, in rmtree
return _rmtree_unsafe (path, onerror)
File “C: UsersNikhil, AggarwalAppDataLocalPrograms38-Python _rmtree_unsafe
onerror (os.scandir, path, sys.exc_info ())
File “C: UsersNikhil AggarwalAppDataLocalProgramsPythonPython38-32libshutil.py”, line 586, in _rmtree_unsafe
(with path os.scandir ) as scandir_it:
FileNotFoundError: [WinError 3] The system cannot find the path specified: ’D: / Pycharm projects / Python.Engineering / Authors’

Example 3: passing onerror .
A function must be passed to onerror , which must contain three parameters.

function: function that caused the exception.
path: passed the path that caused the deletion exception
excinfo: information about the exception called by sys.exc_info ()

Below is a description.

# Python program for demonstration
# shutil.rmtree ()

import shutil

import os

# exception handler

def handler (func, path, exc_info):

   print   (  "Inside handler"  )  
   print   (exc_info)  
   
   
  # place location  
   location   =   "D: / Pycharm projects / Python.Engineering / " 
    
  # directory  
   dir   =   "Authors"  
   
  # path  
   path   =   os.path.join ( (location,   dir  ) 
   
  # deleting directory  
   shutil.rmtree (path, onerror   =   handler)

Exit:

Inside handler
(, FileNotFoundError (2, ’The system cannot find the path specified’),)
Inside handler
(, FileNotFoundError (2, ’The system cannot find the file specified’), )