How to delete files and directories in Python

How to delete a file or folder using Python?

Removing files

Remove a file with os.remove()

1
2
3
import os

os.remove("path/to/file")
1
2
3
4
from pathlib import Path

p = Path("path/to/file")
p.unlink()

Removing directories

Remove an empty directory with os.rmdir()

1
2
3
import os

os.rmdir("path/to/folder")

Remove an empty directory with pathlib.Path.rmdir()

1
2
3
4
from pathlib import Path

p = Path("path/to/folder")
p.rmdir()

Remove an empty directory and its contents with shutil.rmtree()

1
2
3
import shutil

shutil.rmtree("path/to/folder")