[LCP]recursive dir delete

[Erik Mouw]

On Fri, Feb 15, 2002 at 08:54:24AM -0000, mehul radheshyam choube wrote:
>   i am trying to write a c program which when given a directory path
>   will recursive delete the contents of the directory and then delete
>   the directory.

Nice as a programming excersise, but I think you just want "rm -rf".

>   which data structure should i use?(i think tree data structure).........

Because you have to follow the directory structure depth first, the
easiest way is to have a stack onto which you can push directories.

>   any ideas on data structures,some precautions,...

Be very careful not to follow symlinks: imagine a symlink to / when you
run the program as root... Also symlinks can create cycles in the
directory graph causing your program to loop forever (or until the
memory is exhausted).


Erik

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J.A.K. (Erik) Mouw, Information and Communication Theory Group, Faculty
of Information Technology and Systems, Delft University of Technology,
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