Python: Delete / Remove files

How do I delete a file called /tmp/foo.txt using Python programming language under MS-Windows or Unix like operating systems?

You can use either remove("/path/to/file") or unlink("/file/path") to remove (delete) the file path.

Tutorial details
Difficulty	Easy (rss)
Root privileges	No
Requirements	Python

Syntax

import os os.remove("/tmp/foo.txt")

import os os.unlink("/tmp/foo.txt")

Examples

A better option is to use os.path.isfile("/path/to/file") to check for whether the file exists or not:

 
#!/usr/bin/python
import os
myfile="/tmp/foo.txt"
 
## if file exists, delete it ##
if os.path.isfile(myfile):
        os.remove(myfile)
else:    ## Show an error ##
        print("Error: %s file not found" % myfile)

Or use try:...except OSError as follows to detect error while deleting the file:

 
#!/usr/bin/python
import os
 
## get input ##
myfile= raw_input("Enter file name to delete : ")
 
## try to delete file ##
try:
        os.remove(myfile)
except OSError, e:  ## if failed, report it back to the user ##
        print ("Error: %s - %s." % (e.filename,e.strerror))

Sample outputs:

Enter file name to delete : demo.txt
Error: demo.txt - No such file or directory.
Enter file name to delete : rrr.txt
Error: rrr.txt - Operation not permitted.
Enter file name to delete : foo.txt

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Python: Delete / Remove files

Syntax

Examples

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