Reputation: 20036
I want to delete the file filename
if it exists. Is it proper to say
if os.path.exists(filename):
os.remove(filename)
Is there a better way? A one-line way?
Upvotes: 680
Views: 468623
Reputation: 373
If glob is available.
for file in glob.glob("file/matching/pattern/*.csv"):
os.remove(file)
Upvotes: -1
Reputation: 2145
As of Python 3.8, use pathlib.Path.unlink
with the missing_ok=True
kwarg (docs here).
Otherwise, a try/except block is the best way to do it as it is thread-safe (unlike an if/else block that checks if the file exists). In Python 3.3, the FileNotFoundError
was introduced as a subclass of OSError
specific to the file not existing and in Python 3.4 pathlib
was added as a cleaner way to deal with the file system. So...
import pathlib # Python >= 3.4
import os # Python < 3.4
# Python 3.8+
pathlib.Path("./dir/file.txt").unlink(missing_ok=True)
# Python 3.4-3.7
try:
pathlib.Path("./dir/file.txt").unlink()
except FileNotFoundError:
pass
# Python 3.3
try:
os.remove("./dir/file.txt")
except FileNotFoundError:
pass
# Python 3.2 and earlier
try:
os.remove("./dir/file.txt")
except OSError:
pass
Upvotes: 151
Reputation: 6911
Since Python 3.3 you can use FileNotFoundError
which is more correct than the accepted version since it doesn't ignore other possible errors.
try:
os.remove(filename)
except FileNotFoundError:
pass
Upvotes: 5
Reputation: 6641
In the spirit of Andy Jones' answer, how about an authentic ternary operation:
os.remove(fn) if os.path.exists(fn) else None
Upvotes: 51
Reputation: 1350
This is another solution:
if os.path.isfile(os.path.join(path, filename)):
os.remove(os.path.join(path, filename))
Upvotes: -1
Reputation: 42694
Matt's answer is the right one for older Pythons and Kevin's the right answer for newer ones.
If you wish not to copy the function for silentremove
, this functionality is exposed in path.py as remove_p:
from path import Path
Path(filename).remove_p()
Upvotes: 9
Reputation: 13145
A KISS offering:
def remove_if_exists(filename):
if os.path.exists(filename):
os.remove(filename)
And then:
remove_if_exists("my.file")
Upvotes: 0
Reputation: 71
In Python 3.4 or later version, the pythonic way would be:
import os
from contextlib import suppress
with suppress(OSError):
os.remove(filename)
Upvotes: 3
Reputation: 465
if os.path.exists(filename): os.remove(filename)
is a one-liner.
Many of you may disagree - possibly for reasons like considering the proposed use of ternaries "ugly" - but this begs the question of whether we should listen to people used to ugly standards when they call something non-standard "ugly".
Upvotes: 22
Reputation: 22153
A more pythonic way would be:
try:
os.remove(filename)
except OSError:
pass
Although this takes even more lines and looks very ugly, it avoids the unnecessary call to os.path.exists()
and follows the python convention of overusing exceptions.
It may be worthwhile to write a function to do this for you:
import os, errno
def silentremove(filename):
try:
os.remove(filename)
except OSError as e: # this would be "except OSError, e:" before Python 2.6
if e.errno != errno.ENOENT: # errno.ENOENT = no such file or directory
raise # re-raise exception if a different error occurred
Upvotes: 830
Reputation: 30171
I prefer to suppress an exception rather than checking for the file's existence, to avoid a TOCTTOU bug. Matt's answer is a good example of this, but we can simplify it slightly under Python 3, using contextlib.suppress()
:
import contextlib
with contextlib.suppress(FileNotFoundError):
os.remove(filename)
If filename
is a pathlib.Path
object instead of a string, we can call its .unlink()
method instead of using os.remove()
. In my experience, Path objects are more useful than strings for filesystem manipulation.
Since everything in this answer is exclusive to Python 3, it provides yet another reason to upgrade.
Upvotes: 280
Reputation: 3087
Another way to know if the file (or files) exists, and to remove it, is using the module glob.
from glob import glob
import os
for filename in glob("*.csv"):
os.remove(filename)
Glob finds all the files that could select the pattern with a *nix wildcard, and loops the list.
Upvotes: 8
Reputation: 2680
os.path.exists
returns True
for folders as well as files. Consider using os.path.isfile
to check for whether the file exists instead.
Upvotes: 58
Reputation: 6275
Something like this? Takes advantage of short-circuit evaluation. If the file does not exist, the whole conditional cannot be true, so python will not bother evaluation the second part.
os.path.exists("gogogo.php") and os.remove("gogogo.php")
Upvotes: 0