4.36 File System Interaction
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  • Documentation
    • Reference manual
      • Built-in Predicates
        • File System Interaction
          • access_file/2
          • exists_file/1
          • file_directory_name/2
          • file_base_name/2
          • same_file/2
          • exists_directory/1
          • delete_file/1
          • rename_file/2
          • size_file/2
          • time_file/2
          • absolute_file_name/2
          • absolute_file_name/3
          • is_absolute_file_name/1
          • file_name_extension/3
          • directory_files/2
          • expand_file_name/2
          • prolog_to_os_filename/2
          • read_link/3
          • tmp_file/2
          • tmp_file_stream/3
          • make_directory/1
          • delete_directory/1
          • working_directory/2
          • chdir/1
    • Packages
Availability:built-in
delete_file(+File)
Remove File from the file system. Note that on POSIX systems the remove() call works on read-only files as long as the containing directory has write access. The Windows remove() call raises a permission error if the file is read-only. SWI-Prolog removes the read-only attribute if remove() fails and tries again. If the file still cannot be removed it restores the read-only attribute and delete_file/1 raises a permission error. As a consequence a read-only file that cannot be removed is briefly read-write. Also note that while an open file can be removed on POSIX systems (where it is actually deleted when closed), deleting an open file on Windows is not possible.