R devel - Nov 2012 - Non-recursive way to remove empty directory on Windows?

Hi,

file.remove(path) will remove an empty directory "on most Unix
platforms", but not on Windows, cf. help("file.remove").  A
workaround
for Windows is then unlink(path, recursive=TRUE).  However, unless
you're really careful and make sure 'path' is not empty, you may
delete more than you wish (even worse, path may contain '..' or
likewise from a list.files(all.names=TRUE) call).  Is there another
*non-recursive* way to delete a single empty directory on Windows
(without turning to system() calls)?

Thanks,

Henrik

> (even worse, path may contain '..' or
> likewise from a list.files(all.names=TRUE) call)
Would anyone's code break if "." and ".." were never in
the output of
list.files() (or dir())?  I find it tedious to skip them
whenever doing anything recursive in the file system.  They are
not in the output of the unix find command and no one misses them
there.

Bill Dunlap
Spotfire, TIBCO Software
wdunlap tibco.com

> -----Original Message-----
> From: r-devel-bounces at r-project.org [mailto:r-devel-bounces at
r-project.org] On Behalf
> Of Henrik Bengtsson
> Sent: Wednesday, November 28, 2012 6:25 PM
> To: R-devel
> Subject: [Rd] Non-recursive way to remove empty directory on Windows?
> 
> Hi,
> 
> file.remove(path) will remove an empty directory "on most Unix
> platforms", but not on Windows, cf. help("file.remove").  A
workaround
> for Windows is then unlink(path, recursive=TRUE).  However, unless
> you're really careful and make sure 'path' is not empty, you
may
> delete more than you wish (even worse, path may contain '..' or
> likewise from a list.files(all.names=TRUE) call).  Is there another
> *non-recursive* way to delete a single empty directory on Windows
> (without turning to system() calls)?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Henrik
> 
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