Contents

REMOVE delete file or empty directory

optional: mex

Matlab or GNU Octave delete() has trouble with not being able to delete open files on Windows. This function mitigates that limitation by returning a boolean success status.

function ok = remove(apath)

arguments
  apath {mustBeTextScalar}
end

ok = false;

if stdlib.isoctave() && ~stdlib.exists(apath)
  return
end

fallback for if MEX not compiled

try %#ok<*TRYNC>
  delete(apath);
  ok = true;
end

[~, id] = lastwarn();

if strcmp(id, 'MATLAB:DELETE:FileNotFound')
  ok = false;
end

end

%!assert(!remove(tempname()))

Published with MATLAB® R2024b