How to delete files in Node.js
Łukasz Holeczek
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Deleting files programmatically is crucial for cleanup operations, temporary file management, and storage optimization in Node.js applications.
As the creator of CoreUI, a widely used open-source UI library, I’ve implemented file deletion in countless backend services over 25 years of development.
From my expertise, the most reliable approach is using the fs.unlink() method, which removes files from the filesystem safely.
This is essential for managing uploads, cache files, and temporary data storage.
Use fs.unlink() to remove files from the filesystem.
const fs = require('fs')
fs.unlink('temp-file.txt', (err) => {
if (err) throw err
console.log('File deleted successfully')
})
Here fs.unlink() takes the file path and a callback function that handles the deletion result. The method removes the file from the filesystem permanently. If the file doesn’t exist, Node.js throws an error, so consider checking file existence with fs.access() before deletion in production code.
Best Practice Note:
This is the same file deletion approach we use in CoreUI backend services for temporary file cleanup and storage management.
Always handle errors gracefully and consider using fs.promises.unlink() with async/await for cleaner asynchronous code in modern Node.js applications.
