How to Delete the Contents of a Directory in One Step (32497)



The information in this article applies to:
    Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 2.11
    Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 3.1
    Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 3.2
    Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 3.21
    Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 3.3
    Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 3.3a
    Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 4.0
    Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 5.0
    Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 5.0a
    Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 6.0
    Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 6.2
    Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 6.21
    Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 6.22

This article was previously published under Q32497

SUMMARY

If you try to delete the entire contents of a directory, MS-DOS prompts you to verify the operation. While this helps protect you against inadvertently erasing a large number of files, it also forces you to go through two steps to perform a single operation. The experienced MS-DOS user can place the following command in a batch file in order to make available the option of deleting the contents of directory in one step:

echo y | del %1\*.*

If the above line is placed in a batch file called, for example, DELALL.BAT, you can then tell MS-DOS to delete all the files in the current working directory by invoking the batch file as follows:

delall .

NOTE: This example may want to include more error checking, since invoking this batch file and forgetting to provide the %1 argument would delete all of the files in the root directory.

If you are using MS-DOS 6 or later, you can simply use the DELTREE program. For more information on DELTREE, type help deltree at the MS-DOS 6.x command prompt and then press ENTER.

Modification Type: Major Last Reviewed: 5/12/2003
Keywords: KB32497