Elisp: File and Directory Functions

By Xah Lee. Date: . Last updated: .

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

Functions on File

rename-file
(rename-file "~/test1.txt" "~/test2.txt")
copy-file
(copy-file "~/test1.txt" "~/test2.txt")
delete-file
(delete-file "~/test2.txt")

Creating Temp File with Unique Names

Functions on Directory

directory-files

List files. 〔see Elisp: Walk Directory, List Files〕

make-directory

Create a directory.

delete-directory

Delete a whole dir.

new in Emacs 23 (Released 2009-07) 

(delete-directory "~/stuff" t)
copy-directory
(copy-directory "~/stuff" "~/stuff-backup")

other. unsorted

these are less used.

Reference

Elisp, File, Buffer