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<h2><a name="delete">Delete</a></h2>
<h3>Description</h3>
<p>Deletes a single file, a specified directory and all its files and
subdirectories, or a set of files specified by one or more
<a href="../CoreTypes/fileset.html">FileSet</a>s.
When specifying a set of files, empty directories are <i>not</i> removed by
default.
To remove empty directories, use the <code>includeEmptyDirs</code> attribute.
</p>
<p>
If you use this task to delete temporary files created by editors
and it doesn't seem to work, read up on the 
<a href="../dirtasks.html#defaultexcludes">default exclusion set</a>
in <strong>Directory-based Tasks</strong>, and see the
<code>defaultexcludes</code> attribute below.
 
<h3>Parameters</h3>
<table border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0">
  <tr>
    <td valign="top"><b>Attribute</b></td>
    <td valign="top"><b>Description</b></td>
    <td align="center" valign="top"><b>Required</b></td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td valign="top">file</td>
    <td valign="top">The file to delete, specified as either the simple
     filename (if the file exists in the current base directory), a
     relative-path filename, or a full-path filename.</td>
    <td align="center" valign="middle" rowspan="2">At least one of the two,
     unless a <code>&lt;fileset&gt;</code> is specified.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td valign="top">dir</td>
    <td valign="top">The directory to delete, including all its files and
     subdirectories.<br>
     <b>Note:</b> <code>dir</code> is <em>not</em> used
     to specify a directory name for <code>file</code>; <code>file</code>
     and <code>dir</code> are independent of each other.<br>
     <b>WARNING:</b> Do <b>not</b> set <code>dir</code> to
     <code>&quot;.&quot;</code>, <code>&quot;${basedir}&quot;</code>,
     or the full-pathname equivalent unless you truly <em>intend</em> to
     recursively remove the entire contents of the current base directory
     (and the base directory itself, if different from the current working
     directory).</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td valign="top">verbose</td>
    <td valign="top">Show the name of each deleted file
     (&quot;true&quot;/&quot;false&quot;).
     Default is &quot;false&quot; when omitted.</td>
    <td align="center" valign="top">No</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td valign="top">quiet</td>
    <td valign="top">If the specified file or directory does not exist,
     do not display a diagnostic message (unless Ant
     has been invoked with the <code>&#x2011;verbose</code> or
     <code>&#x2011;debug</code> switches) or modify the exit status to
     reflect an error.
     When set to &quot;true&quot;, if a file or directory cannot be deleted,
     no error is reported. This setting emulates the 
     <code>-f</code> option to the Unix <em>rm</em> command.
     Default is &quot;false&quot;.
     Setting this to &quot;true&quot; implies setting
     <code>failonerror</code> to &quot;false&quot;.
    </td>
    <td align="center" valign="top">No</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td valign="top">failonerror</td>
    <td valign="top">
    Controls whether an error (such as a failure to delete a file)
    stops the build or is merely reported to the screen.
    Only relevant if <code>quiet</code> is &quot;false&quot;.
    Default is &quot;true&quot;.
    </td>
    <td align="center" valign="top">No</td>
  </tr>  
  <tr>
    <td valign="top">includeEmptyDirs</td>
    <td valign="top">Set to &quot;true&quot; to delete empty directories when
    using filesets.  Default is &quot;false&quot;.</td>
    <td align="center" valign="top">No</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td valign="top">includes</td>
    <td valign="top"><em>Deprecated.</em>  Use <code>&lt;fileset&gt;</code>.
      Comma-separated list of patterns of
      files that must be deleted. All files are relative to the directory
      specified in <code>dir</code>.
      </td>
    <td valign="top" align="center">No</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td valign="top">includesfile</td>
    <td valign="top"><em>Deprecated.</em>  Use <code>&lt;fileset&gt;</code>.
      The name of a file. Each line of
      this file is taken to be an include pattern</td>
    <td valign="top" align="center">No</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td valign="top">excludes</td>
    <td valign="top"><em>Deprecated.</em>  Use <code>&lt;fileset&gt;</code>.
      Comma-separated list of patterns of
      files that must be excluded from the deletion list.
      All files are relative to the directory specified in <code>dir</code>.
      No files (except default excludes) are excluded when omitted.</td>
    <td valign="top" align="center">No</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td valign="top">excludesfile</td>
    <td valign="top"><em>Deprecated.</em>  Use <code>&lt;fileset&gt;</code>.
      The name of a file. Each line of
      this file is taken to be an exclude pattern</td>
    <td valign="top" align="center">No</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td valign="top">defaultexcludes</td>
    <td valign="top"> Indicates whether default excludes
      should be used or not (&quot;yes&quot;/&quot;no&quot;).
      Default excludes are used when omitted.</td>
    <td valign="top" align="center">No</td>
  </tr>
</table>
<h3>Examples</h3>
<pre>  &lt;delete file=&quot;/lib/ant.jar&quot;/&gt;</pre>
<p>deletes the file <code>/lib/ant.jar</code>.</p>
<pre>  &lt;delete dir=&quot;lib&quot;/&gt;</pre>
<p>deletes the <code>lib</code> directory, including all files 
and subdirectories of <code>lib</code>.</p>
<pre>  &lt;delete&gt;
    &lt;fileset dir=&quot;.&quot; includes=&quot;**/*.bak&quot;/&gt;
  &lt;/delete&gt;
</pre>
<p>deletes all files with the extension <code>.bak</code> from the current directory 
and any subdirectories.</p>
<pre>  &lt;delete includeEmptyDirs=&quot;true&quot; &gt;
    &lt;fileset dir=&quot;build&quot; /&gt;
  &lt;/delete&gt;
</pre>
<p>deletes all files and subdirectories of <code>build</code>, including
<code>build</code> itself.</p>
<hr><p align="center">Copyright &copy; 2001-2002 Apache Software Foundation.
All rights Reserved.</p>

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