From: ara.t.howard@...
Date: 2006-10-16T23:19:30+09:00
Subject: Re: Test if Directory is Empty

On Mon, 16 Oct 2006, Daniel Berger wrote:

> lroland@gmail.com wrote:
>> Hi all
>>
>> I browsed through the FileUtils and Dir documentation and found no
>> obvious way to test if a directory exists and is empty. Various hacks
>> can be used (like checking file count and size, testing if the
>> directory can be deleted..) but they all left me wondering if i some
>> how missed a Dir.isEmpty? like method ?
>>
>> So in short is there a real Ruby way of telling whether a directory if
>> empty
>
> if Dir["/foo/bar/*"].empty?

that'll crawl if a directory is huge though... i've used this


   d = "the_dir"

   empty =
     catch("empty"){
       Dir.glob("#{ d }/*"){ throw "empty", false }  # if we find any file return false
       Dir.glob("#{ d }/.*"){ throw "empty", false } # if we find any dotfile/hidden return false
       throw "empty", true                           # otherwise return true
     }

which someone will probably compact... note that it returns false when the
first file/dotfile is found.

cheers.

-a
-- 
my religion is very simple.  my religion is kindness. -- the dalai lama