Authentication This endpoint requires Bearer token authentication.
Authorization: Bearer YOUR_JWT_TOKEN
Request The unique identifier of the file to delete
Authorization Only the file owner can delete files. Attempting to delete another user’s file will result in a 403 Forbidden error.
This operation is irreversible . The file is permanently deleted from both the database and the physical filesystem at /app/data/uploads/. Any associated access records are also deleted (cascade delete).
Deletion Process
Validates user authentication and file ownership
Deletes all associated access records from the accesses table
Removes the file record from the database
Deletes the physical file from /app/data/uploads/{username}/{filename}
Response Success confirmation message
Error Responses Error message describing the failure
400 Bad Request { "error" : "Invalid file ID" }
401 Unauthorized { "error" : "User not authenticated" }
403 Forbidden { "error" : "You don't have permission to delete this file" }
404 Not Found { "error" : "File not found" }
500 Internal Server Error { "error" : "Failed to delete file accesses" }
Other possible 500 errors:
"Failed to delete file record""Failed to delete the physical file"
Examples cURL
cURL - Verbose
JavaScript (Fetch)
Python (Requests)
Go
PHP (cURL)
curl -X DELETE https://api.defdrive.com/api/files/42 \ -H "Authorization: Bearer eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9..."
Success Response Example { "message" : "File deleted successfully" }
After successful deletion, the file ID cannot be reused and the physical storage space is freed. Any access grants associated with the file are automatically removed before the file is deleted.
Cascade Deletion The endpoint performs cascade deletion in the following order:
Access records - All entries in the accesses table with matching file_id are deletedFile record - The file entry is removed from the files tablePhysical file - The actual file is removed from the filesystem
If any step fails after access records are deleted, the file may be in an inconsistent state (access records deleted but file still exists).