Find and Delete Empty Folders
This utility recursively scans a directory and deletes any subfolders that are empty. It's useful for cleaning up project directories or file systems after moving or deleting many files.
Modules Used:
os: To walk through directories and remove them.- argparse: To handle command-line arguments.
The Code
Save this as clean_empty.py.
import os
import argparse
import sys
def find_and_delete_empty(directory, dry_run=False):
if not os.path.isdir(directory):
print(f"Error: Directory '{directory}' not found.")
return
deleted_count = 0
# We use topdown=False to process from the deepest directories up
for root, dirs, files in os.walk(directory, topdown=False):
# Check if the current directory is empty
if not dirs and not files:
try:
if dry_run:
print(f"[DRY RUN] Would delete empty folder: {root}")
else:
os.rmdir(root)
print(f"Deleted empty folder: {root}")
deleted_count += 1
except OSError as e:
print(f"Error deleting {root}: {e}")
if deleted_count == 0:
print("No empty folders found.")
else:
print(f"\nCleanup complete. Deleted {deleted_count} empty folders.")
if __name__ == "__main__":
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description="Find and Delete Empty Folders")
parser.add_argument("directory", help="The root directory to scan")
parser.add_argument("--dry-run", action="store_true", help="Show what would be deleted without actually deleting")
args = parser.parse_args()
find_and_delete_empty(args.directory, args.dry_run)Usage
# First, always run a dry run to see what will be deleted
python clean_empty.py ./my_project --dry-run
# If you are happy with the dry run, execute the deletion
python clean_empty.py ./my_projectHow it works:
The script uses os.walk(directory, topdown=False). The topdown=False argument is crucial because it makes the function traverse the directory tree from the bottom up. This ensures that a folder containing an empty subfolder is not considered empty until after its empty subfolder has been deleted.