Delete current directory content

[techbrainless]

Hi All ,

I want to create a batch file , which do the following

1. first get the current working directory

2. delete all the contents(files, directories ,sub directories) of the current working directory

by the way i have tested the following code but it does not work for me

D:\test>for / d% i in (s *.*) DO del% i / Q / S
/ was unexpected at this time.

D:\test>for / d% i in (s *.*) DO rd% i
/ was unexpected at this time.

D:\test>

Could you plz help me ?

BTW I am using XP , and I want to apply the batch to XP , Vista , Win 7

[Yzöwl]

You are going to have to explain where the batch file is going to be located, how it is going to be invoked and probably what you mean by current working directory!

[techbrainless]

Thanks for your reply

You are going to have to explain where the batch file is going to be located, how it is going to be invoked and probably what you mean by current working directory!

Let us assume that we have placed the .batch file at the location "D:\test\mybatch.bat"

once you have browsed to the directory "test" , double clicking on the batch file "mybatch.bat" , it should delete all the contents of the directory "test" ("D:\test")

off course the batch file should delete all the contents of "test" directory except itself "mybatch.bat"

[jaclaz]

Let us assume that we have placed the .batch file at the location "D:\test\mybatch.bat"

once you have browsed to the directory "test" , double clicking on the batch file "mybatch.bat" , it should delete all the contents of the directory "test" ("D:\test")

off course the batch file should delete all the contents of "test" directory except itself "mybatch.bat"

This should do:

@echo off
SETLOCAL ENABLEEXTENSIONS
for /f "Tokens=*" %%A in ('dir /B /S /A:-D^|FIND /V "%~nx0"') do ECHO del /q "%%A"
for /f "Tokens=*" %%A in ('dir /B /S /A:D') do ECHO rd /s /q "%%A"

jaclaz

[techbrainless]

Thanks jaclaz for your reply ,

@echo off

SETLOCAL ENABLEEXTENSIONS

for /f "Tokens=*" %%A in ('dir /B /S /A:-D^|FIND /V "%~nx0"') do ECHO del /q "%%A"

for /f "Tokens=*" %%A in ('dir /B /S /A:D') do ECHO rd /s /q "%%A"

1. I have copied the above code into empty batch file, saved it , double clicked on it ( batch file) , but nothing happened ( nothing got deleted)

2. I tried to copy , paste the above code into DOS prompt but it displayed error and got hang as the following

D:\test>@echo off
SETLOCAL ENABLEEXTENSIONS
for /f "Tokens=*" %%A in ('dir /B /S /A:-D^|FIND /V "%~nx0"') do ECHO del /q "%%
A"
%%A was unexpected at this time.
for /f "Tokens=*" %%A in ('dir /B /S /A:D') do ECHO rd /s /q "%%A"
%%A was unexpected at this time.

[allen2]

1: Of course the batch supplied has echo before the del command.

2: And when you copied the commands to a dos prompt, it also normal as the syntax used by Jaclaz shouldn't be used there.

Edited September 5, 2011 by allen2

[techbrainless]

Thanks allen2 for your reply,

1: Of course the batch supplied has echo before the del command.

forget about echo command , the problem is that : NOTHING will be deleted after executing the batch file ?????????

[gunsmokingman]

Here is the VBS way of doing what you want, it will delete all sub folders

and files in the parent directory and leave this script

Save As Delete_Contents.vbs

Dim Fso :Set Fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Dim Col, Obj, Str
'-> Loop To Get Script Name Only
 For Each Obj In Split(WScript.ScriptFullName,"\")
  Str = Obj 
 Next
'-> Loop To Delete Files In Current Directory
  For Each Col In Fso.GetFolder(".").Files
'-> Filter So You Dont Delete This File
   If Not LCase(Col.Path) = LCase(WScript.ScriptFullName) Then
    Fso.DeleteFile Col.Path, True 
   End If
  Next
'-> Function To Loop Threw Parent Folder 
'-> And All Sub Folders
 Recursive(Fso.GetFolder("."))
   Function Recursive(Folder)
    On Error Resume Next 
    For Each Obj In Folder.SubFolders
     If Not LCase(Obj.Path) = LCase(Replace(WScript.ScriptFullName,Str,"")) Then
      Fso.DeleteFolder Obj
     End If 
     Recursive(Obj)
    Next
   End Function

Change Delete_Contents.vbs.txt to Delete_Contents.vbs to make active.

Delete_Contents.vbs.txt

[CoffeeFiend]

Yet another thing that's so much easier in powershell (removing everything in a directory, including subfolders):

dir | del -r

That's all of it. Or you can even use:

ls|rm -r

8 chars total

Of course, that has to be ran from the proper folder (using cd or adding the path after dir or whatever you like).

With every passing day it feels like vbscript is becoming more of a dead end (where batch files were a decade ago)... So much code for so little work (not that it ever was what one would call a "nice" language). Yes, it's far more powerful than batch, but it's come to a point where even many programming languages make scripting easier and faster than that scripting language (god forbid if you actually have to do something simple, like sorting something)... It's kinda sad really (thankfully powershell often saves the day). Even in C# creating a specialized console app just for this task (let's call it, EmptyFolder.exe or such) is less code:

using System.IO;
class EmptyFolder
{
  static void Main(string[] args)
  {
    DirectoryInfo di = new DirectoryInfo(args[0]);
    foreach (FileInfo file in di.GetFiles()) file.Delete();
    foreach (DirectoryInfo subdir in di.GetDirectories()) subdir.Delete(true);
  }
}

One should add a guard clause in case the specified path doesn't exist though, and perhaps an error message (usage) if no param or more than one is passed (definitely not what I'd call "finished" yet). Or even easier:

using System.IO;
class EmptyFolder
{
  static void Main(string[] args)
  {
    DirectoryInfo di = new DirectoryInfo(args[0]);
    di.Delete(true);
    di.Create();
  }
}

Although the recursion method tends to work better in some scenarios, like when you have files that cannot be deleted.

[allen2]

Thanks allen2 for your reply,

1: Of course the batch supplied has echo before the del command.

forget about echo command , the problem is that : NOTHING will be deleted after executing the batch file ?????????

You didn't understood at all : The echo command is preventing the del and the rd commands from executing (Jaclaz made it on purpose).

I removed those for you in the following batch:

@echo off
SETLOCAL ENABLEEXTENSIONS
for /f "Tokens=*" %%A in ('dir /B /S /A:-D^|FIND /V "%~nx0"') do del /q "%%A"
for /f "Tokens=*" %%A in ('dir /B /S /A:D') do rd /s /q "%%A"

Edited September 6, 2011 by allen2

[jaclaz]

You didn't understood at all : The echo command is preventing the del and the rd commands from executing (Jaclaz made it on purpose).

Not only he doesn't understand, he also starts shouting!

OBVIOUSLY, since it is potentially VERY dangerous code, I added a basic safeguard to avoid that some demented users would copy and paste it "as is" in the WRONG place (and delete everything in the subtree by mistake.

The idea was to NOT allow someone that cannot even read two lines of batch to potentially make damages.

Since OP asked help in writing a batch file and posted a non-working code that not only doesn't work but is is also evidently NOT following very basic batch or command line syntax, I assumed he was not at all familiar and thought that a safeguard would have been needed.

jaclaz

[techbrainless]

Thanks to who replied,

Especial Thanks to jaclaz (many more thanks) , allen2 && I apologize to all for my rough reply,

@echo off

SETLOCAL ENABLEEXTENSIONS

for /f "Tokens=*" %%A in ('dir /B /S /A:-D^|FIND /V "%~nx0"') do ECHO del /q "%%A"

for /f "Tokens=*" %%A in ('dir /B /S /A:D') do ECHO rd /s /q "%%A"

It works like a charm ........... Again my thanks to jaclaz,allen2

Not only he doesn't understand, he also starts shouting!

OBVIOUSLY, since it is potentially VERY dangerous code, I added a basic safeguard to avoid that some demented users would copy and paste it "as is" in the WRONG place (and delete everything in the subtree by mistake.

The idea was to NOT allow someone that cannot even read two lines of batch to potentially make damages.

Since OP asked help in writing a batch file and posted a non-working code that not only doesn't work but is is also evidently NOT following very basic batch or command line syntax, I assumed he was not at all familiar and thought that a safeguard would have been needed.

I totally agree with you , I dont know even low level basics of batch script and i did not put any effort to learn it.....It was my mistake

I am sure that your above reply encouraged me alot to start learning batch script and also to spend time trying to understanding the things and trying to solve the problems before post a question.

[Yzöwl]

Now that you are happy with the result of the supplied script, I'd just like to inform you that in line three alone there are two unnecessary switches and a potentially ineffective method used for the exception. Line four is not much better either!

[gunsmokingman]

This is how you would code in Vb.net 2008 for deleting the contents without deleting the application.

Public Class Form1
    Dim Cd = My.Computer.FileSystem.CurrentDirectory
    Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
        For Each i In My.Computer.FileSystem.GetFiles(Cd)
            If InStr(1, i, "DelContents.exe", 1) Then
                ' This Make Sure The DelContents.exe Is Not Deleted
            Else
                My.Computer.FileSystem.DeleteFile(i.ToString)
            End If
        Next
        For Each f In My.Computer.FileSystem.GetDirectories(Cd)
            My.Computer.FileSystem.DeleteDirectory(f, _
            FileIO.UIOption.OnlyErrorDialogs, _
            FileIO.RecycleOption.DeletePermanently)
        Next
    End Sub
End Class

Source Code