From: Hal Fulton <hal9000@...>
Date: 2003-10-08T15:16:44+09:00
Subject: Re: How to delete read-only files with Ruby commands

Kurt Euler wrote:
> All-
> 
> On a Windows NT system, is there a way to quickly delete directories (from within a Ruby script) that may have read-only files in them. The command I've been using is 
> 
>    File.delete(*Dir["*.*"])
> 
> but this crashes when it hits a RO file.
> 
> Similarly, is there a way to force the overwriting of a RO file? I've been using File.syscopy, but this, too, crashes when attempting to overwrite an RO file.

I'd suggest this: Get a list of files first and iterate over it.
Wrap in a begin/end and catch the exception. When you get the
exception for a RO file, explicitly change it to be writable
and do a retry.

Something like:

   files = Dir["*.*"]
   files.each do |file|
     begin
       File.delete(file)
     rescue Whatever
       system("whatever #{file}")
       retry
     end
   end

I don't know the exception or how to fix it in Windoze. Any other
mistakes I made are due to the lateness of the hour.

Hal