Node.js provides the node:fs core module allowing you to interact with the local file system. You can create, read, update, or delete files on your computer’s hard disk.
This tutorial shows you how to delete a file from your local disk.
Node.js Series Overview
- Increase the Memory Limit for Your Process
- Why You Should Add “node” in Your Travis Config
- Create a PDF from HTML with Puppeteer and Handlebars
- Create Your Own Custom Error
- Retrieve a Request’s IP Address in Node.js
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- Delete a File From Disk
- Check if a Path is a SymLink (Symbolic Link)
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- Check if a Path is a FIFO File (Named Pipe)
- Check if a Path is a File URL
Delete a File From Local Disk
You can delete a file from your local hard disk using Node.js’ node:fs module. We’re using the promise-based version available at node:fs/promises to ensure an async operation that doesn’t block the event loop.
You can use the Fs.unlink or Fs.rm method to delete a file at a given path. Both methods delete a file or symbolic link at a given path.
Here’s a sample method for deleting a file at a given path.
import Fs from 'node:fs/promises'
await Fs.unlink('/Users/marcus/testing-file-delete-me.js')
await Fs.rm('/Users/marcus/testing-file-delete-me.js')
Fs.unlink throws an error if the given files don’t exist at the given path or if you don’t have access rights. Make sure you’re handling such error cases.
Fs.rm behaves as unlink in its default implementation. It supports an options object as a second parameter to customize error handling, retries, or recursive deletions. Please have a look at the Node.js documentation for Fs.rm to know all supported options.
We’re looking at Fs.rm’s recursive option in the next tutorial on deleting directories. I’ll link the tutorial here as soon as it’s published.
Delete a File Without Exception Handling
Fs.rm supports the force option to skip error handling in case a given file path doesn’t point to a file on disk:
await Fs.rm('<path>', { force: true })
This could be your default behavior depending on your use cases and application code. You could create a utility method to make a file go away without caring about any errors.
Use the @supercharge/fs Package
I’m the maintainer of the @supercharge/fs package providing convenient file system utilities. The @supercharge/fs package comes with a handy Fs.remove(path) method deleting the given path from the file system:
import Fs from '@supercharge/fs'
await Fs.remove('/Users/marcus/Dev/supercharge/fs/testing-delete-me.js')
The remove method deletes the file located at the given path. This method by default forcefully deletes a file which means it won’t throw an error if the file doesn’t exist.
Notice: the Fs.remove method in the @supercharge/fs package recursively tries to delete the given path. If you provide a directory path instead of a file path, everything in that directory will be deleted.
The Difference Between Fs.unlink and Fs.rm
Node.js provides the Fs.unlink and Fs.rm methods to delete a file from a local disk. Node.js supported Fs.unlink since version 0.0.2 and added Fs.rm in version 14.14.0. Both methods delete a file from your local disk and are modeled after the same-named system utilities unlink and rm.
Please have a read through this StackExchange thread on the differences between rm and unlink for more details on both system utilities.
Why use node:fs/promises over node:fs Imports?
The methods available in node:fs/promises are the same as in node:fs. The difference is that methods exposed from node:fs/promises return a promise. In contrast, the methods in node:fs use a callback for asynchronous operations. We’re only using promises in our application code and reach for the promise-based versions of file system utilities, too
Another option is to use the synchronous methods from node:fs. All synchronous methods use the Sync suffix, like rmSync. These methods have the same result as their asynchronous counterparts, but they block the event loop during processing and wait for the disk operation to finish before proceeding with other code.
Our approach is to always use the asynchronous operations to avoid blocking the event loop (as little as possible).
Enjoy deleting files with Node.js!