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Hi all:
I would like to find out how to write a small program that deletes files. I
want to be able to delete all files from a known directory (i.e. cookies,
temp files, etc.) regardless of type and name, "or" may be by extension.
This way I could have it run on start up and I will have my computer free of
junk every time I reboot. What should I use? Please advise.

In message <>, Sonoman
<> writes
>Hi all:
>I would like to find out how to write a small program that deletes files. I
>want to be able to delete all files from a known directory (i.e. cookies,
>temp files, etc.) regardless of type and name, "or" may be by extension.
>This way I could have it run on start up and I will have my computer free of
>junk every time I reboot. What should I use?

You should use the scripting language provided by your operating system.

>Please advise.

This is not something that can be done using standard C++.

--
Richard Herring

On Wed, 30 Jun 2004 11:32:42 -0400
"Sonoman" <> wrote:

> I would like to find out how to write a small program that deletes
> files. I
> want to be able to delete all files from a known directory (i.e.
> cookies,
> temp files, etc.) regardless of type and name, "or" may be by
> extension.

The way you delete files from a filesystem normally depends on the
syscalls your os provides. So there is no clear way to do this.

On Linux systems there is a syscall "unlink" which can do that. There
also exists an accordant function unlink() in the libc. I am quite sure
there exists a similar library for Windows, too.

Greets,
Andreas

--
tcp/80 http://andreas.slashdot.ch
tcp/25
tcp/6667 irc.slashdot.ch #garbage

Sonoman,

"Sonoman" <> wrote in message
news:...
> Hi all:
> I would like to find out how to write a small program that deletes files.
I
> want to be able to delete all files from a known directory (i.e. cookies,
> temp files, etc.) regardless of type and name, "or" may be by extension.
> This way I could have it run on start up and I will have my computer free
of
> junk every time I reboot. What should I use? Please advise.
>

See http://www.boost.org/libs/filesystem...htm#remove_all.

Jeff F

On Wed, 30 Jun 2004 11:32:42 -0400, "Sonoman" <>
wrote:

>Hi all:
>I would like to find out how to write a small program that deletes files. I
>want to be able to delete all files from a known directory (i.e. cookies,
>temp files, etc.) regardless of type and name, "or" may be by extension.
>This way I could have it run on start up and I will have my computer free of
>junk every time I reboot. What should I use? Please advise.
>

I suggest you look at the remove(const char *filename) function in
cstdio which might be what you want.

rossum



--

The Ultimate Truth is that there is no Ultimate Truth

On Wed, 30 Jun 2004 19:05:55 +0200, Andreas Baumgart
<> wrote in comp.lang.c++:

> On Wed, 30 Jun 2004 11:32:42 -0400
> "Sonoman" <> wrote:
>
> > I would like to find out how to write a small program that deletes
> > files. I
> > want to be able to delete all files from a known directory (i.e.
> > cookies,
> > temp files, etc.) regardless of type and name, "or" may be by
> > extension.
>
> The way you delete files from a filesystem normally depends on the
> syscalls your os provides. So there is no clear way to do this.

Apparently you are unaware of the standard C++ library function
std::remove() prototyped in <cstdlib>, which may also be invoked as
::remove() by including <stdlib.h>.

These have been part of the ISO C standard for 15 years now, and part
of ISO C++ for nearly 6 years. They work on all conforming hosted
implementations, and that includes Linux and Windows.

> On Linux systems there is a syscall "unlink" which can do that. There
> also exists an accordant function unlink() in the libc. I am quite sure
> there exists a similar library for Windows, too.
>
> Greets,
> Andreas

--
Jack Klein
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In message <>, Jack Klein
<> writes
>On Wed, 30 Jun 2004 19:05:55 +0200, Andreas Baumgart
><> wrote in comp.lang.c++:
>
>> On Wed, 30 Jun 2004 11:32:42 -0400
>> "Sonoman" <> wrote:
>>
>> > I would like to find out how to write a small program that deletes
>> > files. I
>> > want to be able to delete all files from a known directory (i.e.
>> > cookies,
>> > temp files, etc.) regardless of type and name, "or" may be by
>> > extension.
>>
>> The way you delete files from a filesystem normally depends on the
>> syscalls your os provides. So there is no clear way to do this.
>
>Apparently you are unaware of the standard C++ library function
>std::remove() prototyped in <cstdlib>, which may also be invoked as
>::remove() by including <stdlib.h>.

Ahem. The OP wants to delete _all_ files, not a single named file. I
don't think you can use std::remove() to do that, without some
system-dependent support to enumerate the files.

--
Richard Herring