deleting a full directory

[seandingobat]

Hi all,
is there an easier way to delete a directory that has contents in it?

[seandingobat]

this is my code to delete the folder and Everything inside it

public static void deletedir(File dir){
            File[] list = dir.listFiles();
            for(int x = 0 ; x < list.length; x++){
                if(list[x].isFile()){
                    list[x].delete();
                }else if(list[x].isDirectory()){
                    deletedir(list[x]);
                }
            }

            dir.delete();
        }

[pbrockway2]

Delete each of the elements of the directory. Do this recursively if any of the contents of the directory are, themselves, directories.

Possibly better: check that you have permissions to delete the contents before you begin deleting them (again this will, in general, be recursive). That way if there are permissions problems you won't be left with data in a random half-deleted state.

---

Just saw your second post. That looks OK.

[seandingobat]

how do you check if they have permission?

do you just check if the file has been successfully deleted ?

[pbrockway2]

That's a good question!

If you think there might be a danger that deep within the directories is a file that you can't delete for some reason and if you really don't want to leave the directory in a half deleted state then it would be no good checking after you had deleted things.

As far as I can see there is no method in File for checking whether you can actually delete things. Or even for checking whether a file is writable. About the only thing I can think of in such a case is to make a temporary copy and using it to restore the original in case that checking reveals that the delete failed.