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
+35.9k Golang : How to split or chunking a file to smaller pieces?
+9.4k Golang : How to generate Code 39 barcode?
+21.9k Golang : Securing password with salt
+11.1k Use systeminfo to find out installed Windows Hotfix(s) or updates
+14.9k Golang : Accurate and reliable decimal calculations
+11.4k CodeIgniter : Import Linkedin data
+6.3k Golang : Combine slices of complex numbers and operation example
+5.6k Cash Flow : 50 days to pay your credit card debt
+5.2k Golang : fmt.Println prints out empty data from struct
+7.5k Golang : get the current working directory of a running program
+29k Golang : JQuery AJAX post data to server and send data back to client example
+11.5k Golang : GTK Input dialog box examples