# premove
> A tiny (208B to 260B) utility to remove items recursively
Latest version **4.0.0** (published 2021-12-10) · MIT license · 0 weekly downloads
## Install
```sh
npm install premove
pnpm add premove
yarn add premove
bun add premove
```
Provides the command `premove`.
## Health
**Score 30/100 (F)** — status: abandoned.
Positive: has types; esm support; no vulnerabilities; high quality score.
Warnings: low downloads.
Negative: abandoned; low maintenance score.
## Facts
| | |
|---|---|
| Version | 4.0.0 |
| Published | 2021-12-10 |
| First published | 2019-06-08 |
| Weekly downloads | 0 |
| License | MIT |
| TypeScript types | bundled |
| Module format | ESM + CommonJS |
| Node | >=6 |
| Dependencies | 0 |
| Unpacked size | 9.5 KB |
| Known vulnerabilities | 0 |
| Install scripts | no |
| GitHub stars | 89 |
| Author | Luke Edwards |
| Maintainers | lukeed |
| Keywords | del, remove, rimraf |
## Links
- npm: https://www.npmjs.com/package/premove
- Repository: https://github.com/lukeed/premove
- Homepage: https://github.com/lukeed/premove#readme
- Issues: https://github.com/lukeed/premove/issues
- npm.io page: https://npm.io/package/premove
## Recent versions
- 4.0.0 (latest) — 2021-12-10
- 3.0.1 — 2020-08-19
- 3.0.0 — 2020-08-17
- 2.0.1 — 2020-07-17
- 2.0.0 — 2020-06-21
- 1.0.0 — 2019-06-08
- 0.0.0 — 2019-06-08
## README
# premove [](https://github.com/lukeed/premove/actions) [](https://codecov.io/gh/lukeed/premove)
> A tiny (208B to 260B) utility to remove items recursively
This is a `Promise`-based, cross-platform utility that recursively removes files and directories. It's effectively a programmatic `rm -rf` for Node.js. There's also a [CLI](#cli) for easy, cross-platform usage.
> **Notice:** Node v12.10.0 includes the `recursive` option for [`fs.rmdir`](https://nodejs.org/api/fs.html#fs_fs_rmdir_path_options_callback) and [`fs.rmdirSync`](https://nodejs.org/api/fs.html#fs_fs_rmdirsync_path_options).
## Install
```
$ npm install --save premove
```
## Modes
There are two "versions" of `premove` available:
#### "async"
> **Node.js:** >= 8.x
> **Size (gzip):** 249 bytes
> **Availability:** [CommonJS](https://unpkg.com/premove/dist/index.js), [ES Module](https://unpkg.com/premove/dist/index.mjs)
This is the primary/default mode. It makes use of `async`/`await` and [`util.promisify`](https://nodejs.org/api/util.html#util_util_promisify_original).
#### "sync"
> **Node.js:** >= 6.x
> **Size (gzip):** 202 bytes
> **Availability:** [CommonJS](https://unpkg.com/premove/sync/index.js), [ES Module](https://unpkg.com/premove/sync/index.mjs)
This is the opt-in mode, ideal for scenarios where `async` usage cannot be supported.
In order to use it, simply make the following changes:
```diff
-import { premove } from 'premove';
+import { premove } from 'premove/sync';
```
## Usage
```js
import { resolve } from 'path';
import { premove } from 'premove';
// Async/await
try {
await premove('./foobar');
} catch (err) {
//
}
// Promise
premove('./foobar').then(val => {
console.log(typeof val);
//=> boolean
}).catch(err => {
//
});
// Using `cwd` option
const dir = resolve('./foo/bar');
await premove('hello.txt', { cwd: dir });
```
## CLI
A `premove` binary is available as of v3.0.0.
It accepts an optional `--cwd` value and a list of paths to delete.
> **Important:** By default `premove` refuses to delete:
> * the [`os.homedir`](https://nodejs.org/api/os.html#os_os_homedir)
> * the system root (`/`, `C:\\`, etc)
> * items not contained by `--cwd` path
```sh
# remove "foo" and "bar" via `npx`
$ npx premove foo bar
# install globally, use whenever
$ npm install premove -g
$ premove foo bar
```
## API
### premove(str, opts={})
Returns: `Promise`
Returns a Promise that resolves with a boolean value.
If `true`, indicates that the `str` input _did exist_ and was successfully removed. A `false` value indicates that the `str` input _did not exist_, meaning nothing needed to be removed.
> **Important:**
The `sync` and `async` versions share the same API.
The **only** difference is that `sync` is not Promise-based.
#### str
Type: `String`
The filepath to remove – may be a file or a directory.
An initial existence check is made for this filepath.
> **Important:** This [value is resolved](https://nodejs.org/api/path.html#path_path_resolve_paths) to a full path.
Please be aware of how and _from where_ the Node.js file system is resolving your path!
#### options.cwd
Type: `String`
Default: `.`
The directory to resolve your `str` from.
Defaults to the `process.cwd()` – aka, the directory that your command is run within.
## Related
- [totalist](https://github.com/lukeed/totalist) - A tiny (195B to 224B) utility to recursively list all (total) files in a directory
- [mk-dirs](https://github.com/lukeed/mk-dirs) - A tiny (381B to 419B) utility to make a directory and its parents, recursively
- [escalade](https://github.com/lukeed/escalade) - A tiny (183B) and fast utility to ascend parent directories
## License
MIT © [Luke Edwards](https://lukeed.com)
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_Source: https://npm.io/package/premove · Machine-readable twin of the npm.io package page. Health data is recomputed on every publish._