How can I recursively delete folder with a specific name with PowerShell?

Question

I can delete files with specific extensions in multiple folders with this:

Get-childitem * -include *.scc -recurse | remove-item

But I also need to delete folders with a specific name - in particular those that subversion creates (".svn" or "_svn") when you pull down files from a subversion repo.

For those who want to remove all .svn folders: perhaps svn export is of use to you. It will do a checkout but without adding the .svn folders. — Frank Kusters
– Frank Kusters, Commented Oct 29, 2019 at 13:25

live2 · Accepted Answer · 2020-02-14 13:20:41Z

83

This one should do it:

get-childitem -Include .svn -Recurse -force | Remove-Item -Force -Recurse

Other version:

$fso = New-Object -com "Scripting.FileSystemObject"
$folder = $fso.GetFolder("C:\Test\")

foreach ($subfolder in $folder.SubFolders)
{
    If ($subfolder.Name -like "*.svn")
    {
        remove-item $subfolder.Path -Verbose
    }       
}

edited Feb 14, 2020 at 13:20

live2

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answered Sep 5, 2010 at 23:14

Leniel Maccaferri

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1 Comment

kovac Over a year ago

You might get "Cannot remove item directory not empty" kind of errors on the first few times. But when you keep trying the above command, it works.

Ruben Bartelink · Accepted Answer · 2013-07-31 10:53:20Z

16

I tend to avoid the -Include parameter on Get-ChildItem as it is slower than -Filter. However in this instance (since it can't be expressed as a -Filter), this is what I would use:

Get-ChildItem . -Include .svn,_svn -Recurse -Force | Remove-Item -Recurse -Force

or if typing this at the prompt:

ls . -inc .svn,_svn -r -fo | ri -r -fo

edited Jul 31, 2013 at 10:53

Ruben Bartelink

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answered Sep 6, 2010 at 0:28

Keith Hill

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6 Comments

Keith Hill Over a year ago

Not a typo but the wildcard character ? wasn't working as I expected. It should have matched both _ and . but it wasn't matching the .. Go figure.

Mike Shepard Over a year ago

I'm confused @Keith. You said you avoid -include, but that's what you used.

Keith Hill Over a year ago

I said I "tend" to avoid -include for the reason stated above. However, if you need to filter based on several different wildcard specs, -filter won't handle that. So using -include should be no slower than piping through Where-Object to filter on the filename.

Ruben Bartelink Over a year ago

@MikeShepard (and Keith) I took the liberty of editing in some of Keith's comment into the body of the answer as it had me puzzling too! I guess best to leave both comments (and this) for future generations...

angularsen Over a year ago

I got errors using this, presumably because it tries to call Get-ChildItem on folders that are already deleted, so I added -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue to the ri or Remove-Item command to mute it.

|

lodewykk · Accepted Answer · 2022-03-07 14:17:02Z

15

For fast deletion, use -Filter

To recursively delete a folder with a specific name -Filter is significantly faster than -Include.

So, for visibility, here is the faster version of @Keith's answer:

Fully typed-out:

Get-ChildItem -Filter .svn -Recurse -Force | Remove-Item -Recurse -Force

Short version:

ls . -filter .svn -r -fo | ri -r -fo

edited Mar 7, 2022 at 14:17

answered Sep 2, 2019 at 14:59

lodewykk

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2 Comments

sommmen Over a year ago

hm - is there also a version which outputs the paths deleted? just so i know it works and all.

Anatoly Mironov Over a year ago

Just used it for deleting git folders in an archive. worked perfectly. thanks. So to remove .git folders recursively run ls . -filter .git -r -fo | ri -r -fo

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