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.

npm install del

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'));

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!

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().

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

Returns string[] with the deleted paths.

Type: string | string[]

See the supported glob patterns.

• Pattern examples with expected matches
• Quick globbing pattern overview

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.

Type: boolean
Default: false

Allow deleting the current working directory and outside.

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'));

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']

Type: number
Default: Infinity
Minimum: 1

Concurrency limit.

Type: (progress: ProgressData) => void

Called after each file or directory is deleted.

import {deleteAsync} from 'del';

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

{
	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.

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

Available as part of the Tidelift Subscription.

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