deltildefiles: D language utility to recursively delete vim backup files

By Vasudev Ram

~

Here's a small utility I wrote in D (the D programming language). The utility is called deltildefiles (for "delete tilde files"). It lets you delete all files whose names end in "~", the tilde character (Wikipedia), under a specified directory, recursively, i.e. including such files found in sub-directories.

[ BTW, check out the Wikipedia article about tilde, linked above. It has many interesting uses in various domains, not just computer programming, for example, in physics, mathematics, economics, electronics and even juggling :) ]

The vim editor (if the option :se backup is set) names its backups of the files you edit, with the same file name as the original file, plus a tilde at the end. Of course, you can do the same task as this utility deltildefiles, with just a batch file (or two) which uses DEL (with or without /S) on Windows), so I just wrote this for fun and learning. However, if you want to enhance the task with other conditions, etc., then a program (or at least a script, in Python, Perl or other language) may be the better way to go, rather than writing an awkward batch file (even if that is possible) or using PowerShell (haven't used the latter). Another alternative is to use a shell script on Linux, or if you use Cygwin or other Unix emulation on Windows, to use the find and rm commands, that come with it, like:

$ find $dirName -print -name '*~' -exec rm {} \; # or some variation

Be careful with the above command. If you make a typing mistake, like omitting the ~, it could end up deleting the wrong files, and potentially many of them. This is also one reason to make the command into a binary (like I have done) or a shell script, test it thoroughly with dummy / safe data, and from then onward, only use that, instead of typing the find command each time - at least for commands that can delete data or cause other damage.

Anyway, here is the code for deltildefiles.d:

/****************************************************************
File: deltildefiles.d
Purpose: To delete vim backup files, i.e. files ending with ~.
Compile with:
$ dmd deltildefiles.d

Author: Vasudev Ram
Copyright 2016 Vasudev Ram
Web site: https://vasudevram.github.io
Products: https://gumroad.com/vasudevram

Description: To delete all files whose names end with 
the tilde character (~) in the directory subtree 
specified as the command-line argument. 

When you edit a file abc.txt with the vim editor, it will 
first make a backup in the file abc.txt~ (note ~ character
at end of file name). Over time, these files can accumulate.
This utility helps you to delete all such vim backup files 
in a specified directory and its subdirectories.

Use with caution and at your own risk!!!
On most operating systems, once a file is deleted this way
(versus sending to the Recycle Bin on Windows), it is not 
recoverable, unless you have installed some undelete utility.
****************************************************************/

import std.stdio;
import std.file;

void usage(string[] args) {
    stderr.writeln("Usage: ", args[0], " dirName");
    stderr.writeln(
        "Recursively delete files whose names end with ~ under dirName.");
}

int main(string[] args) {
    if (args.length != 2) {
        usage(args);
        return 1;
    }
    string dirName = args[1];
    // Check if dirName exists.
    if (!exists(dirName)) {
        stderr.writeln("Error: ", dirName, " not found. Exiting.");
        return 1;
    }
    // Check if dirName is not the NUL device and is actually a directory.
    if (dirName == "NUL" || !DirEntry(dirName).isDir()) {
        stderr.writeln("Error: ", dirName, " is not a directory. Exiting.");
        return 1;
    }
    try {
        foreach(DirEntry de; dirEntries(args[1], "*~", SpanMode.breadth)) {
            // The isFile() check may be enough, also need to check for
            // Windows vs POSIX behavior.
            if (de.isFile() && !de.isDir()) {
                writeln("Deleting ", de.name());
                remove(de.name());
            }
        }
    } catch (FileException) {
        stderr.writeln("Caught a FileException. Exiting.");
        return 1;
    } catch (Exception) {
        stderr.writeln("Caught an Exception. Exiting.");
        return 1;
    }
    return 0;
}

Compile it with:

$ dmd deltildefiles.d

And you can run it like this:

$ deltildefiles .

which will delete all files ending in ~, in and under the current directory. If you give a file name instead of a directory name, or if you give a non-existent directory name, it gives an error message and exits.

It seems to work as of now, based on some testing I did. May have a few bugs since I haven't tested it exhaustively. May make a few improvements to it over time, such as generalizing from ~ to filename wildcards, more error handling, verbose / quiet flags, etc.

Translate this post into another language with Google Translate
(and, just for kicks, click the speaker icon below the right hand side text box at the above Translate page :).

- Vasudev Ram - Online Python training and consulting

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