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

C++17 has <experimental\filesystem> which is based on the boost version.

Use std::experimental::filesystem::remove_all to remove recursively.

If you need more control, try std::experimental::filesystem::recursive_directory_iterator.

You can also write your own recursion with the non-resursive version of the iterator.

namespace fs = std::experimental::filesystem;
void IterateRecursively(fs::path path)
{
  if (fs::is_directory(path))
  {
    for (auto & child : fs::directory_iterator(path))
      IterateRecursively(child.path());
  }

  std::cout << path << std::endl;
}

Answer 2

You can use opendir and readdir to read directory entries and unlink to delete them.