CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pythonfile
Tahreem Iqbal
Tahreem Iqbal

Reputation: 1015

Delete a file after reading

In my code, user uploads file which is saved on server and read using the server path. I'm trying to delete the file from that path after I'm done reading it. But it gives me following error instead:

An error occurred while reading file. [WinError 32] The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process

I'm reading file using with, and I've tried f.close() and also f.closed but its the same error every time.

This is my code:

f = open(filePath)
    with f:
        line = f.readline().strip()
        tempLst = line.split(fileSeparator)

        if(len(lstHeader) != len(tempLst)):
            headerErrorMsg = "invalid headers"
            hjsonObj["Line No."] = 1
            hjsonObj["Error Detail"] = headerErrorMsg
            data['lstErrorData'].append(hjsonObj)
            data["status"] = True

            f.closed
            return data                                                  

    f.closed

after this code I call the remove function:

os.remove(filePath)

Edit: using with open(filePath) as f: and then trying to remove the file gives the same error.

Upvotes: 7

Views: 22282

Answers (4)

Fabiol Dikongue
Fabiol Dikongue

Reputation: 1

There is probably an application that is opening the file; check and close the application before executing your code:

os.remove(file_path)

Delete files that are not used by another application.

Upvotes: 0

Harsha Vardhan Gundapaneni
Harsha Vardhan Gundapaneni

Reputation: 46

Use below code:

import os
os.startfile('your_file.py')

To delete after completion:

os.remove('your_file.py')

Upvotes: 3

Nima Ghotbi
Nima Ghotbi

Reputation: 671

This

import os

path = 'path/to/file'

with open(path) as f:
  for l in f:
    print l,

os.remove(path)

should work, with statement will automatically close the file after the nested block of code

if it fails, File could be in use by some external factor. you can use Redo pattern.

while True:
  try:
    os.remove(path)
    break
  except:
    time.sleep(1)

Upvotes: 2

selbie
selbie

Reputation: 104464

Instead of:

 f.closed

You need to say:

f.close()

closed is just a boolean property on the file object to indicate if the file is actually closed.

close() is method on the file object that actually closes the file.

Side note: attempting a file delete after closing a file handle is not 100% reliable. The file might still be getting scanned by the virus scanner or indexer. Or some other system hook is holding on to the file reference, etc... If the delete fails, wait a second and try again.

Upvotes: 3

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