Emacs: Delete Backup in Current Dir Recursively 🚀

By Xah Lee. Date: .

here's a command to delete all emacs backup files~ in current dir and all subdirs.

this is good because it does not rely on bash or PowerShell, and can be called by Alt+x, no need to drop to shell. 

(defun xah-list-emacs-backup ()
  "List emacs backup files~ in current dir, recursively.
In lisp code, return a list of file paths.
Version: 2023-09-13"
  (interactive)
  (let ((xpaths (directory-files-recursively default-directory "~$"))
        (xbuf (generate-new-buffer "*emacs backup files*")))
    (display-buffer xbuf)
    (mapc (lambda (x) (princ (format "%s\n" x) xbuf)) xpaths)))

(defun xah-delete-emacs-backup ()
  "Delete emacs backup files~ in current dir, recursively.
Version: 2023-09-13"
  (interactive)
  (let ((xpaths (xah-list-emacs-backup)))
    (when (y-or-n-p (format "Delete in %s" default-directory))
      (mapc 'delete-file xpaths))
    xpaths))

Emacs: auto save, backup