Delete all folders and subdirectories that do not have a file with a specific extension

Question

I use this solution to delete all empty folders and subdirectories in a specific path:

static void Main(string[] args) { processDirectory(@"c:\temp"); } private static void processDirectory(string startLocation) { foreach (var directory in Directory.GetDirectories(startLocation)) { processDirectory(directory); if (Directory.GetFiles(directory).Length == 0 && Directory.GetDirectories(directory).Length == 0) { Directory.Delete(directory, false); } } } 

It works great. But I want to delete all empty folders, as well as folders that are not empty, but also do not contain files with the extension .dvr .

For example, in my folder there are files:

a.log

b.log

c.dvr

d.dat

Therefore, this folder cannot be deleted because it contains a file with the dvr extension.

How can I filter it? (I use GTK #, but I believe that C # code will work as this solution is C # code)

Answer 1

Unfortunately, error handling is a very exception based on I / O operations. And Directory.Delete throws an IOException if the directory is not empty. Therefore, you will have to manually delete the files:

 private static bool processDirectory(string startLocation) { bool result = true; foreach (var directory in Directory.GetDirectories(startLocation)) { bool directoryResult = processDirectory(directory); result &= directoryResult; if (Directory.GetFiles(directory, "*.dvr").Any()) { result = false; continue; } foreach(var file in Directory.GetFiles(directory)) { try { File.Delete(file); } catch(IOException) { // error handling result = directoryResult = false; } } if (!directoryResult) continue; try { Directory.Delete(directory, false); } catch(IOException) { // error handling result = false; } } return result; } 

Answer 2

I would use Directory.EnumerateFiles to find out if the directory contains the file you are looking for. Change your code:

 static void Main(string[] args) { processDirectory(@"c:\temp"); } private static void processDirectory(string startLocation) { foreach (var directory in Directory.GetDirectories(startLocation)) { processDirectory(directory); if (Directory.GetDirectories(directory).Length == 0 || Directory.EnumerateFiles(directory, "*.dvr").Length == 0 ) { Directory.Delete(directory, false); } } } 

Answer 3

Avitus's answer is correct, but since you need it to work in .NET 2.0, you cannot use the EnumerateFiles method, however GetFiles gets the job done beautifully. But it requires a bit more code.

Example:

 static void Main(string[] args) { processDirectory(@"c:\temp"); } private static void processDirectory(string startLocation) { foreach (var directory in Directory.GetDirectories(startLocation)) { processDirectory(directory); if (Directory.GetDirectories(directory).Length == 0)) { bool delete = false; var files = Directory.GetFiles(directory); // This will delete the directory if it contains a file with the Extension // of .dvr, regardless if there are other files in there. Might be something you want to change. for (int i = 0; i < files.Length && !delete; i++) { delete = files[i].Extension.Equals(".dvr", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase); } if (delete) { // Recursive must be set to true in order to // delete files and sub-directories in the folder. // This folder will not have any sub-directories // so it only used to delete the files. Directory.Delete(directory, /*recursive*/ true); } } } } 

You could, in the spirit of lesser code, move the call to the Directory.Delete method in a for loop, if you want, then break the loop.