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Overview

The deleteFile function removes a file from the file system synchronously.

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Function Signature

deleteFile(filePath: string): void

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Parameters

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filePath
string
required
The path to the file to delete. Can be relative or absolute. Relative paths are resolved from the current working directory.

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Return Value

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void
void
This function does not return a value.

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Implementation Details

The function performs the following steps:
  1. Resolves the provided file path to an absolute path using path.resolve()
  2. Deletes the file synchronously using fs.unlinkSync()
  3. The file is permanently removed from the file system

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Usage Example

import { deleteFile } from './tools/deleteFile';

// Delete a temporary file
deleteFile('./tmp/cache.json');

// Delete with absolute path
deleteFile('/var/log/old-logs.txt');

// Delete after processing
const data = readFile('./input.txt');
processData(data);
deleteFile('./input.txt');

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Error Handling

This function will throw an error if:
  • The file does not exist
  • The file cannot be deleted due to permissions
  • The path points to a directory (use fs.rmdirSync() or fs.rmSync() for directories)
  • The file is currently in use or locked by another process
This operation is irreversible. Deleted files cannot be recovered. Always verify the file path before deletion, especially when working with user-provided paths.
This is a synchronous operation and will block the event loop until the file is deleted. For performance-critical applications, consider using asynchronous file operations.

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Best Practices

import { deleteFile } from './tools/deleteFile';
import { readFile } from './tools/readFile';
import fs from 'fs';

// Check if file exists before deleting
if (fs.existsSync('./temp.txt')) {
  deleteFile('./temp.txt');
}

// Delete files safely with try-catch
try {
  deleteFile('./output.json');
  console.log('File deleted successfully');
} catch (error) {
  console.error('Failed to delete file:', error.message);
}

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Source Code

import fs from 'fs';
import path from 'path';

export const deleteFile = (filePath: string) => {
    const absPath = path.resolve(filePath);
    fs.unlinkSync(absPath);
};

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