Removing a non empty directory programmatically in C or C++

Question

How to delete a non empty directory in C or C++? Is there any function? rmdir only deletes empty directory. Please provide a way without using any external library.

Answer 1

Many unix-like systems (Linux, the BSDs, and OS X, at the very least) have the fts functions for directory traversal.

To recursively delete a directory, perform a depth-first traversal (without following symlinks) and remove every visited file:

int recursive_delete(const char *dir)
{
    int ret = 0;
    FTS *ftsp = NULL;
    FTSENT *curr;

    // Cast needed (in C) because fts_open() takes a "char * const *", instead
    // of a "const char * const *", which is only allowed in C++. fts_open()
    // does not modify the argument.
    char *files[] = { (char *) dir, NULL };

    // FTS_NOCHDIR  - Avoid changing cwd, which could cause unexpected behavior
    //                in multithreaded programs
    // FTS_PHYSICAL - Don't follow symlinks. Prevents deletion of files outside
    //                of the specified directory
    // FTS_XDEV     - Don't cross filesystem boundaries
    ftsp = fts_open(files, FTS_NOCHDIR | FTS_PHYSICAL | FTS_XDEV, NULL);
    if (!ftsp) {
        fprintf(stderr, "%s: fts_open failed: %s\n", dir, strerror(curr->fts_errno));
        ret = -1;
        goto finish;
    }

    while ((curr = fts_read(ftsp))) {
        switch (curr->fts_info) {
        case FTS_NS:
        case FTS_DNR:
        case FTS_ERR:
            fprintf(stderr, "%s: fts_read error: %s\n",
                    curr->fts_accpath, strerror(curr->fts_errno));
            break;

        case FTS_DC:
        case FTS_DOT:
        case FTS_NSOK:
            // Not reached unless FTS_LOGICAL, FTS_SEEDOT, or FTS_NOSTAT were
            // passed to fts_open()
            break;

        case FTS_D:
            // Do nothing. Need depth-first search, so directories are deleted
            // in FTS_DP
            break;

        case FTS_DP:
        case FTS_F:
        case FTS_SL:
        case FTS_SLNONE:
        case FTS_DEFAULT:
            if (remove(curr->fts_accpath) < 0) {
                fprintf(stderr, "%s: Failed to remove: %s\n",
                        curr->fts_path, strerror(curr->fts_errno));
                ret = -1;
            }
            break;
        }
    }

finish:
    if (ftsp) {
        fts_close(ftsp);
    }

    return ret;
}