How to delete multiple PDF files in the current directory in javascript/node.js

Question

I wanted to delete multiple files which are ending with .pdf under the current directory. Suppose I have 3 different pdf files, 1 image file, and one text file, so in these, I want to delete those 3 different pdf files only.

What I have tried.

1st method fs.unlinkSync('./'+*+pdfname); -> I know this does not make sense

2nd method

      try {
          var files = (here the list of files should come. However i am failing to get those);
          var path="./"
          files.forEach(path => fs.existsSync(path) && fs.unlinkSync(path))
        } catch (err) {
          console.error("not exist")
        }

Any different approaches would be appreciated.

Update for the solution:

I have got the solution for my requirement, I just wanted my function to delete all the pdf files and function to be synchronous. However 99% of the solution given by the below author -> https://stackoverflow.com/a/66558251/11781464

fs.readdir is asynchronous and just needs to make it synchronous fs.readdirSync.

below is the updated code and all the credit should go to the author https://stackoverflow.com/a/66558251/11781464.

Updated code

        try {
          const path = './'
          // Read the directory given in `path`
          fs.readdirSync(path).forEach((file) => {
              // Check if the file is with a PDF extension, remove it
              if (file.split('.').pop().toLowerCase() === 'pdf') {
                console.log(`Deleting file: ${file}`);
                fs.unlinkSync(path + file)
              }
            });
          console.log("Deleted all the pdf files")
          return true;
        } catch (err) {
          console.error("Error in deleting files",err);
        }

Answer 1

You can read the directory using fs.readdir and then check for PDF files and delete them. Like this:

fs = require('fs');

try {
  path = './'
  // Read the directory given in `path`
  const files = fs.readdir(path, (err, files) => {
    if (err)
      throw err;

    files.forEach((file) => { 
      // Check if the file is with a PDF extension, remove it
      if (file.split('.').pop().toLowerCase() == 'pdf') {
        console.log(`Deleting file: ${file}`);
        fs.unlinkSync(path + file)
      }
    });
  });
} catch (err) {
  console.error(err);
}

Answer 2

Preliminary Reading

• The current working directory of the Node.js process - see update below answer

• Path methods

  • resolve
  • extName

• File System methods

  • fs.readdirSync
  • fs.unlinkSync

  and classes

  • dirent

---

Example

"use strict";
const fs = require('fs');
const path = require('path');
const cwd = process.cwd();

fs.readdirSync( cwd, {withFileTypes: true})
.forEach( dirent => {
    if(dirent.isFile()) {
        const fileName = dirent.name;
        if( path.extname(fileName).toLowerCase() === ".pdf") {
            fs.unlinkSync( path.resolve( cwd, fileName));
        }
    }
});

---

Notes

1. untested code
2. If unlinkSync fails I would assume it returns -1 as per the unlink(2) man page linked in documentation. Personally I would test this using a filename that doesn't exist in cwd.
3. I believe the {withFileTypes: true} option for readdirSync returns dirent objects with a mime-type value that would allow you to check for files of type application/pdf regardless of extension (not attempted in the example).

---

Update: path(resolve) adds the current working directory at the beginning of the returned path, when necessary, by default. path.resolve(fileName) will work equally as well as path.resolve(cwd, fileName) in the example.

Answer 3

It seems you know how to delete (unlink) the files - you are asking how to get the file paths?

Try using glob:

const pdfFiles = require("glob").globSync("*.pdf");

Answer 4

Hi here i am attaching tested code for delete all ( only ) .pdf files and not other extension files like .txt , .docs etc from directory.

Note : You can delete any files or directory only from server side.

const fs = require('fs');
const path = require('path')

fs.readdir('../path to directory', (err, files) => {
const pdfFiles = files.filter(el => path.extname(el) === '.pdf')
pdfFiles.forEach(file => {
    console.log("Removing File -> ",file);
    var filename = "../path to directory/"+file;
    fs.unlink(filename,function(err){
        if(err) return console.log(err);
        console.log('file deleted successfully');
   });  
  });
});

This will gives you a following result in console log.

Removing File -> note.pdf
Removing File -> note2.pdf
file deleted successfully
file deleted successfully

Please feel free to comment any query if have..