cross platform "rm" command - node.js

Question

I currently have the following script in my package.json for deleting all ".js" files in my bundles folder for when I run "npm run build". It works fine when running it in dev servers but breaks when it is run in a Windows machine.
{
"scripts": {
"build": "rm bundles/*.js && webpack",
},
}
Since I am hashing all my build files, I am required to delete them all before adding new ones, such that I don't end up with a bunch of old builds.
Is there a "rm bundles/*.js" that would work in both Mac and Windows?

Answer 1

The npm package rimraf is available for command-line usage in scripts.
First install locally into your project:
$ npm install --save-dev rimraf
Then update the build script in your package.json file:
"scripts": {
"prebuild": "rimraf bundles/*.js",
"build": "webpack"
}
The rimraf command (named after rm -rf) deletes the files.
Documentation:
https://www.npmjs.com/package/rimraf#cli
rimraf is a well established project with over 3,000 4,000 5,000 ⭐s on GitHub.

Answer 2

Take a look at shelljs:
ShellJS is a portable (Windows/Linux/OS X) implementation of Unix
shell commands on top of the Node.js API. You can use it to eliminate
your shell script's dependency on Unix while still keeping its
familiar and powerful commands. You can also install it globally so
you can run it from outside Node projects - say goodbye to those
gnarly Bash scripts!
And further to shelljs/shx, which provides the following example:
{
"scripts": {
"clean": "shx rm -rf build dist && shx echo Done"
}
}
An alternative:
You may also want to take a look at Gulp or Grunt, both so called Task Runners. Gulp has gulp-clean and Grunt has grunt-contrib-clean. Both aim to delete folders and/or files.
Let's take Grunt for example:
Add the Grunt CLI with npm i -g grunt-cli to your system
Add the needed packages to your project with npm i --save-dev grunt grunt-contrib-clean
Create a file named gruntfile.js
Add the following lines:
module.exports = (grunt) => {
'use strict';
grunt.initConfig({
clean: ['bundles'],
});
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-clean');
grunt.registerTask('default', ['clean']);
};
Update your script "build": "grunt && webpack"

Answer 3

Cross-platform, no dependencies
If you're like me and don't want to add 11 dependencies just to delete a directory, you can use node exit codes to conditionally run scripts:
e.g. Remove the ./dist folder
{
"scripts": {
"clean": "npm run clean:win && npm run clean:lin",
"clean:win": "node -e \"if (process.platform === 'win32') process.exit(1)\" || , if exist dist rmdir /Q /S dist",
"clean:lin": "node -e \"if (process.platform !== 'win32') process.exit(1)\" || rm -rf dist",
}
}
npm run clean

Answer 4

If you do not concern about 'rm/del not found' console.log, here is the short and simple solution, no additional dependencies are required, rm works on Mac and Linux, del works on Windows:
{
"scripts": {
"build": "(rm bundles/*.js || del bundles/*.js) && webpack",
},
}

Answer 5

Update: recursive-fs added a CLI for deleting a folder so you can now do:
"scripts": {
"clean": "recursive-delete \"./bundles\""
}
Original:
If you decide you don't need 11 additional packages just to delete a single folder, you can use recursive-fs and a short script:
node -e \"require('recursive-fs').rmdirr(require('path').resolve('bundles'), ()=>{})\"
Alternatively, someone could write an NPM package that does this and has only a single dependency on recursive-fs, which would still put it at 9 packages fewer than rimraf. Another option would be to fork recursive-fs and publish an NPM package that includes a CLI in it that makes using it for recursive deletions easier.