Is node.js rmdir recursive ? Will it work on non empty directories?

Question

The documentation for fs.rmdir is very short and doesn\'t explain the behavior of rmdir when the directory is not empty.

Q: What happens if I try to use

Answer 1

A neat synchronous version of rmdirSync.

/** 
 * use with try ... catch ...
 * 
 * If you have permission to remove all file/dir
 * and no race condition and no IO exception...
 * then this should work 
 *
 * uncomment the line 
 *   if(!fs.exists(p)) return 
 * if you care the inital value of dir, 
 * 
 */
var fs = require('fs')
var path = require('path')

function rmdirSync(dir,file){
  var p = file? path.join(dir,file):dir;
  // if(!fs.exists(p)) return 
  if(fs.lstatSync(p).isDirectory()){
    fs.readdirSync(p).forEach(rmdirSync.bind(null,p))
    fs.rmdirSync(p)
  }
  else fs.unlinkSync(p)
}

And a parallel IO, asynchronous version of rmdir. (faster)

/**
 * NOTE: 
 * 
 * If there are no error, callback will only be called once.
 * 
 * If there are multiple errors, callback will be called 
 * exactly as many time as errors occur. 
 * 
 * Sometimes, this behavior maybe useful, but users 
 * should be aware of this and handle errors in callback. 
 * 
 */

var fs = require('fs')
var path = require('path')

function rmfile(dir, file, callback){
  var p = path.join(dir, file)
  fs.lstat(p, function(err, stat){
    if(err) callback.call(null,err)
    else if(stat.isDirectory()) rmdir(p, callback)
    else fs.unlink(p, callback)
  })
}

function rmdir(dir, callback){
  fs.readdir(dir, function(err,files){
    if(err) callback.call(null,err)
    else if( files.length ){
      var i,j
      for(i=j=files.length; i--; ){
        rmfile(dir,files[i], function(err){
          if(err) callback.call(null, err)
          else if(--j === 0 ) fs.rmdir(dir,callback)
        })
      }
    }
    else fs.rmdir(dir, callback)
  })
}

Anyway, if you want a sequential IO, and callback be called exactly once (either success or with first error encountered). Replace this rmdir with the above. (slower)

function rmdir(dir, callback){
  fs.readdir(dir, function(err,files){
    if(err) callback.call(null,err)
    else if( files.length ) rmfile(dir, files[0], function(err){
      if(err) callback.call(null,err)
      else rmdir(dir, callback)
    })
    else fs.rmdir(dir, callback)
  })
}

All of them depend ONLY on node.js and should be portable.