Golang : Determine if directory is empty with os.File.Readdir() function
Problem :
You are traversing a directory tree with filepath.Walk()
function and you need to find out if a directory is empty or not.
Solution :
Instead of grabbing the entire directory content only to find out that it is empty, check if the directory is empty by reading in 1 file. Yup, just 1 file with the os.Readdir()
function and if the error returned is EOF(end of file), that means .... the directory is empty.
package main
import (
"fmt"
"io"
"os"
)
func IsDirEmpty(name string) (bool, error) {
f, err := os.Open(name)
if err != nil {
return false, err
}
defer f.Close()
// read in ONLY one file
_, err = f.Readdir(1)
// and if the file is EOF... well, the dir is empty.
if err == io.EOF {
return true, nil
}
return false, err
}
func main() {
ok, err := IsDirEmpty("./")
if err != nil {
fmt.Println(err)
}
fmt.Println("Current directory is empty? : ", ok)
ok, err = IsDirEmpty("./emptydir")
if err != nil {
fmt.Println(err)
}
fmt.Println("EmptyDir directory is empty? : ", ok)
}
Sample output :
Current directory is empty? : false
EmptyDir directory is empty? : true
References :
http://golang.org/pkg/os/#File.Readdir
https://www.socketloop.com/tutorials/golang-read-directory-content-with-filepath-walk
See also : Golang : Delete certain files in a directory
By Adam Ng
IF you gain some knowledge or the information here solved your programming problem. Please consider donating to the less fortunate or some charities that you like. Apart from donation, planting trees, volunteering or reducing your carbon footprint will be great too.
Advertisement
Tutorials
+16.1k Golang : Qt image viewer example
+6.3k Golang : Process json data with Jason package
+9.5k Golang : Interfacing with PayPal's IPN(Instant Payment Notification) example
+6.5k Golang : Handling Yes No Quit query input
+10.4k Golang : Generate DSA private, public key and PEM files example
+7.8k Golang : Handle sub domain with Gin
+7.2k Golang : Routes multiplexer routing example with regular expression control
+4.7k Linux/Unix/PHP : Restart PHP-FPM
+20k Golang : GORM create record or insert new record into database example
+27.5k Golang : Saving(serializing) and reading file with GOB
+5.9k Swift : substringWithRange() function example
+7.7k Golang : Find network service name from given port and protocol