Delete multiple files with applescript

Question

Let’s say I have multiple files I want to delete, and they’re stored one per line in a files.txt file. I can delete them with

set deleteThis to paragraphs of (read "files.txt")

repeat with lineFromFile in deleteThis
    set fileName to POSIX file lineFromFile
    tell application "Finder" to delete file fileName
end repeat

This is the logic you usually find online — deleting them one by one, but not only does this screw your “Put Back” option (you have to ⌘z multiple times), it also plays the trash sound a bunch of times in a row.

Is there a way to delete multiple files at once, say via storing them in an array and deleting that?

Edit

The answer by @adayzdone is the best so far, but it fails on directories

adayzdone · Accepted Answer · 2014-09-16 15:09:48Z

2

Try:

    set deleteThis to paragraphs of (read "files.txt" as «class utf8»)
    set deleteList to {}

   tell application "Finder"
    repeat with aPath in deleteThis
        try
            set end of deleteList to (file aPath)
        on error
            try
                set end of deleteList to (folder aPath)
            end try
        end try
    end repeat

    delete deleteList
end tell

edited Sep 16, 2014 at 15:09

answered Nov 15, 2013 at 15:02

adayzdone

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4 Comments

user137369 Over a year ago

It seems to only work with files whose names consist of only ascii characters, though. Do you know how to solve that?

Mark Over a year ago

You need to make sure that files.txt is UTF8 encoded if you want to reference files with non-ASCII file names.

user137369 Over a year ago

It is UTF8 encoded, and I’ve tried the cat command. Still can’t get it to work.

user137369 Over a year ago

Found another limitation — it does not work on directories. Is there a way to make it work for both directories and files?

Darrick Herwehe · Accepted Answer · 2013-11-15 13:52:58Z

0

Yes, Finder will take a list of paths as an argument to the delete command.

set deleteThis to paragraphs of (read "files.txt")

repeat with i from 1 to (count deleteThis)
    set item i of deleteThis to POSIX file (item i of deleteThis)
end repeat

tell application "Finder"
    delete deleteThis
end tell

Alternatively, if you're able to store the file paths as HFS paths instead of POSIX paths, you can skip the coercion:

set deleteThis to paragraphs of (read "files.txt")

tell application "Finder"
    delete deleteThis
end tell

answered Nov 15, 2013 at 13:52

Darrick Herwehe

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2 Comments

user137369 Over a year ago

Doesn’t work. It gives me an error on the line set item i of deleteThis to POSIX file (item i of deleteThis), stating error "Can’t get POSIX file \"\"." number -1728 from POSIX file ""

Darrick Herwehe Over a year ago

Sounds like you have a trailing empty line in your text file. You may need to run some cleanup in the repeat loop to make sure you're only getting valid file paths.

Parag Bafna · Accepted Answer · 2013-11-15 13:59:37Z

0

tell application "Finder"
    set file_list to entire contents of (choose folder with prompt "Please select directory.")
    move file_list to trash
end tell

answered Nov 15, 2013 at 13:59

Parag Bafna

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3 Comments

user137369 Over a year ago

This assumes I want to delete all the files inside a specific directory, which is not the case. I want to delete files specified in a list.

Parag Bafna Over a year ago

You can create file_list. above code is example of move file_list to trash

user137369 Over a year ago

But that’s just saying “yes, you can do what you suggested”. I was looking as to how to accomplish it.

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