Emacs Lisp: File and Directory Functions

By Xah Lee. Date: . Last updated: .

Here's the most useful functions for file and directory.

Functions on File

Basic functions on file and directory.

file-exists-p
rename-file
(rename-file "~/test1.txt" "~/test2.txt")
copy-file
(copy-file "~/test1.txt" "~/test2.txt")
delete-file
(delete-file "~/test2.txt")
set-file-modes

Functions on Directory

directory-files
make-directory
delete-directory
delete a whole dir. new in emacs 23.
(delete-directory "~/stuff" t)
copy-directory
(copy-directory "~/stuff" "~/stuff-backup")

(info "(elisp) Files")

Emacs Lisp File/Buffer


Practical Elisp ⭐

Writing Command

Text Processing

Get User Input

File/Buffer

Writing Script