delete_file/1

Availability:built-in

delete_file(+File)

Remove File from the file system. Note that on POSIX systems the remove() call works on read-only files as long as the containing directory has write access. The Windows remove() call raises a permission error if the file is read-only. SWI-Prolog removes the read-only attribute if remove() fails and tries again. If the file still cannot be removed it restores the read-only attribute and delete_file/1 raises a permission error. As a consequence a read-only file that cannot be removed is briefly read-write. Also note that while an open file can be removed on POSIX systems (where it is actually deleted when closed), deleting an open file on Windows is not possible.