In this article, we will see how to safely delete files and folders using thesend2trash module in Python. Usingsend2trash, we can send files to the Trash or Recycle Bin instead of permanently deleting them. TheOS module'sunlink(),remove() andrmdir() functions can be used to delete files or folders. But, these functions delete the files permanently. The operations cannot be undone if there were any accidental deletions performed. This can be prevented usingsend2trash.

Modules required

• OS :The OS module in Python provides functions for interacting with the operating system. OS module comes with Python's Standard Library.
• send2trash :Send2Trash is a small package that sends files to the Trash (or Recycle Bin) natively and on all platforms. To install it type the below command in the terminal.

pip install send2trash

Deleting a file or folder

Thesend2trash() function accepts the location of the file or folder to be deleted.

importsend2trashsend2trash.send2trash("/location/to/file")

The process of deleting a directory is same as above. If the directory contains files or other folders, those are also deleted. ATrashPermissionError exception is raised, in case a file could not be deleted due to permission error or any other unexpected reason.

Deleting specific files in a directory

We can use theos.walk() function to walk through a directory and delete specific files. In the example below, we will delete all '.txt' files in the given directory.

importosimportsend2trash# walking through the directoryforfolder,subfolders,filesinos.walk('/Users/tithighosh/Documents'):forfileinfiles:# checking if file is# of .txt typeiffile.endswith('.txt'):path=os.path.join(folder,file)# printing the path of the file# to be deletedprint('deleted : ',path)# deleting the filesend2trash.send2trash(path)

Output :

deleted :  /Users/tithighosh/Documents/cfile.txtdeleted :  /Users/tithighosh/Documents/e_also_big_output.txtdeleted :  /Users/tithighosh/Documents/res.txtdeleted :  /Users/tithighosh/Documents/tk.txt

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