del

What is del?

The del npm package is a powerful tool for deleting files and directories in a Node.js environment. It uses globs to select files and is built on top of the rimraf package, providing a promise-based API that supports multiple files and globbing patterns.

What are del's main functionalities?

Delete files and directories

This feature allows you to delete files and directories using glob patterns. The example shows how to delete all JavaScript files in the 'temp' directory except 'temp/unicorn.js'.

const del = require('del');

del(['temp/*.js', '!temp/unicorn.js']).then(paths => {
    console.log('Deleted files and folders:\n', paths.join('\n'));
});

Dry run

This feature performs a dry run without actually deleting the files. It's useful for testing which files would be deleted.

const del = require('del');

del(['temp/*.js'], {dryRun: true}).then(paths => {
    console.log('Files and folders that would be deleted:\n', paths.join('\n'));
});

Force deletion

This feature allows you to delete files outside of the current working directory. Use with caution as it can potentially cause data loss.

const del = require('del');

del(['../temp/*.js'], {force: true}).then(paths => {
    console.log('Deleted files and folders:\n', paths.join('\n'));
});

Other packages similar to del

rimraf

rimraf is a Node.js package that provides a UNIX command rm -rf like functionality. It is the underlying library that del uses to delete files and directories. Unlike del, rimraf does not return promises natively and does not support globbing patterns without additional modules.

fs-extra

fs-extra is a package that extends the built-in Node.js fs module. It includes methods like remove and emptyDir which can be used to delete files and directories. fs-extra supports promises and can be a more comprehensive file system solution, but it does not have built-in globbing support.

globby

globby is a globbing library for Node.js that can be used in conjunction with other file system packages to delete files using patterns. It is not a direct alternative to del, but it can be used to achieve similar results when combined with fs or fs-extra.

README

del

Delete files and directories using globs

Similar to rimraf, but with a Promise API and support for multiple files and globbing. It also protects you against deleting the current working directory and above.

Install

npm install del

Usage

import {deleteAsync} from 'del';

const deletedFilePaths = await deleteAsync(['temp/*.js', '!temp/unicorn.js']);
const deletedDirectoryPaths = await deleteAsync(['temp', 'public']);

console.log('Deleted files:\n', deletedFilePaths.join('\n'));
console.log('\n\n');
console.log('Deleted directories:\n', deletedDirectoryPaths.join('\n'));

Beware

The glob pattern ** matches all children and the parent.

So this won't work:

deleteSync(['public/assets/**', '!public/assets/goat.png']);

You have to explicitly ignore the parent directories too:

deleteSync(['public/assets/**', '!public/assets', '!public/assets/goat.png']);

To delete all subdirectories inside public/, you can do:

deleteSync(['public/*/']);

Suggestions on how to improve this welcome!

API

Note that glob patterns can only contain forward-slashes, not backward-slashes. Windows file paths can use backward-slashes as long as the path does not contain any glob-like characters, otherwise use path.posix.join() instead of path.join().

deleteAsync(patterns, options?)

Returns Promise<string[]> with the deleted paths.

deleteSync(patterns, options?)

Returns string[] with the deleted paths.

patterns

Type: string | string[]

See the supported glob patterns.

• Pattern examples with expected matches
• Quick globbing pattern overview

options

Type: object

You can specify any of the globby options in addition to the below options. In contrast to the globby defaults, expandDirectories, onlyFiles, and followSymbolicLinks are false by default.

force

Type: boolean
Default: false

Allow deleting the current working directory and outside.

dryRun

Type: boolean
Default: false

See what would be deleted.

import {deleteAsync} from 'del';

const deletedPaths = await deleteAsync(['temp/*.js'], {dryRun: true});

console.log('Files and directories that would be deleted:\n', deletedPaths.join('\n'));

dot

Type: boolean
Default: false

Allow patterns to match files/folders that start with a period (.).

This option is passed through to fast-glob.

Note that an explicit dot in a portion of the pattern will always match dot files.

Example

directory/
├── .editorconfig
└── package.json

import {deleteSync} from 'del';

deleteSync('*', {dot: false});
//=> ['package.json']
deleteSync('*', {dot: true});
//=> ['.editorconfig', 'package.json']

concurrency

Type: number
Default: Infinity
Minimum: 1

Concurrency limit.

onProgress

Type: (progress: ProgressData) => void

Called after each file or directory is deleted.

import {deleteAsync} from 'del';

await deleteAsync(patterns, {
	onProgress: progress => {
	// …
}});

ProgressData

{
	totalCount: number,
	deletedCount: number,
	percent: number,
	path?: string
}

• percent is a value between 0 and 1
• path is the absolute path of the deleted file or directory. It will not be present if nothing was deleted.

CLI

See del-cli for a CLI for this module and trash-cli for a safe version that is suitable for running by hand.

Related

• make-dir - Make a directory and its parents if needed
• globby - User-friendly glob matching