Node.js: 2 Ways to Delete All Files in a Folder

There might be cases where you want to empty an entire folder in Node.js. This article shows you a couple of different ways to do so. The first approach uses self-written code while the second one makes use of a third-party package. You can choose from them which fits your needs.

Using Self-Written Code

This method is a little verbose. First, we’ll find all files in the given folder. Next. we will delete these files one by one with a for loop.

Example

Project structure:

.
├── files
│   ├── a.jpg
│   ├── b.png
│   ├── c.xml
│   ├── d.csv
│   └── e.txt
├── index.js
└── package.json

Screenshot:

The complete code in index.js:

// kindacode.com
// index.js

import fsPromises from 'fs/promises'
import path from 'path'
// if you prefer commonJS, use this:
// require fsPromises from 'fs/promises'
// require path from 'path';

const emptyFolder = async (folderPath) => {
    try {
        // Find all files in the folder
        const files = await fsPromises.readdir(folderPath);
        for (const file of files) {
            await fsPromises.unlink(path.resolve(folderPath, file));
            console.log(`${folderPath}/${file} has been removed successfully`);
        }
    } catch (err){
        console.log(err);
    }
}

// Test it
emptyFolder('./files');

Output:

./files/a.jpg has been removed successfully
./files/b.png has been removed successfully
./files/c.xml has been removed successfully
./files/d.csv has been removed successfully
./files/example.txt has been removed successfully

Using a Third-Party Library

This approach is very quick and we only have to write a single line of code to get the job done. But first, we need to install a package named fs-extra:

npm i fs-extra

Then we can synchronously clear everything in the given folder like this:

// kindacode.com
// index.js
import fsExtra from 'fs-extra'

fsExtra.emptyDirSync('./files');

If you want to asynchronously empty the folder (with async/await), use this code:

// kindacode.com
// index.js
import fsExtra from 'fs-extra'

const emptyFolder = async (folderPath) => {
    try {
        await fsExtra.emptyDir(folderPath);
        console.log('Done!');
    } catch (err){
        console.log(err);
    }
}

// Run the function
emptyFolder('./files');

Conclusion

We’ve walked through two ways to empty a given directory in Node.js. Which one you will use in your project? Please let us know by leaving a comment. If you’d like to explore more new and interesting stuff about modern Node.js, take a look at the following articles:

• 2 Ways to Set Default Time Zone in Node.js
• Node.js: How to Compress a File using Gzip format
• 4 Ways to Read JSON Files in Node.js
• Node.js: Using __dirname and __filename with ES Modules
• Node.js: Generate Images from Text Using Canvas
• Node.js: Ways to Create a Directory If It Doesn’t Exist

You can also check out our Node.js category page for the latest tutorials and examples.