为了更安全的使用，我编写了有3个安全标准的程序。

package ch.ethz.idsc.queuey.util;

import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;

/** recursive file/directory deletion
 * 
 * safety from erroneous use is enhanced by three criteria
 * 1) checking the depth of the directory tree T to be deleted
 * against a permitted upper bound "max_depth"
 * 2) checking the number of files to be deleted #F
 * against a permitted upper bound "max_count"
 * 3) if deletion of a file or directory fails, the process aborts */
public final class FileDelete {
    /** Example: The command
     * FileDelete.of(new File("/user/name/myapp/recordings/log20171024"), 2, 1000);
     * deletes given directory with sub directories of depth of at most 2,
     * and max number of total files less than 1000. No files are deleted
     * if directory tree exceeds 2, or total of files exceed 1000.
     * 
     * abort criteria are described at top of class
     * 
     * @param file
     * @param max_depth
     * @param max_count
     * @return
     * @throws Exception if criteria are not met */
    public static FileDelete of(File file, int max_depth, int max_count) throws IOException {
        return new FileDelete(file, max_depth, max_count);
    }

    // ---
    private final File root;
    private final int max_depth;
    private int removed = 0;

    /** @param root file or a directory. If root is a file, the file will be deleted.
     *            If root is a directory, the directory tree will be deleted.
     * @param max_depth of directory visitor
     * @param max_count of files to delete
     * @throws IOException */
    private FileDelete(final File root, final int max_depth, final int max_count) throws IOException {
        this.root = root;
        this.max_depth = max_depth;
        // ---
        final int count = visitRecursively(root, 0, false);
        if (count <= max_count) // abort criteria 2)
            visitRecursively(root, 0, true);
        else
            throw new IOException("more files to be deleted than allowed (" + max_count + "<=" + count + ") in " + root);
    }

    private int visitRecursively(final File file, final int depth, final boolean delete) throws IOException {
        if (max_depth < depth) // enforce depth limit, abort criteria 1)
            throw new IOException("directory tree exceeds permitted depth");
        // ---
        int count = 0;
        if (file.isDirectory()) // if file is a directory, recur
            for (File entry : file.listFiles())
                count += visitRecursively(entry, depth + 1, delete);
        ++count; // count file as visited
        if (delete) {
            final boolean deleted = file.delete();
            if (!deleted) // abort criteria 3)
                throw new IOException("cannot delete " + file.getAbsolutePath());
            ++removed;
        }
        return count;
    }

    public int deletedCount() {
        return removed;
    }

    public void printNotification() {
        int count = deletedCount();
        if (0 < count)
            System.out.println("deleted " + count + " file(s) in " + root);
    }
}

在Java 7中，我们终于可以通过可靠的符号链接检测来做到这一点。(我不认为Apache的commons-io现在有可靠的符号链接检测，因为它不处理Windows上用mklink创建的链接。)

出于历史原因，这里有一个java 7之前的答案，它遵循符号链接。

void delete(File f) throws IOException {
  if (f.isDirectory()) {
    for (File c : f.listFiles())
      delete(c);
  }
  if (!f.delete())
    throw new FileNotFoundException("Failed to delete file: " + f);
}

在Java 7+中，你可以使用Files类。代码非常简单:

Path directory = Paths.get("/tmp");
Files.walkFileTree(directory, new SimpleFileVisitor<Path>() {
   @Override
   public FileVisitResult visitFile(Path file, BasicFileAttributes attrs) throws IOException {
       Files.delete(file);
       return FileVisitResult.CONTINUE;
   }

   @Override
   public FileVisitResult postVisitDirectory(Path dir, IOException exc) throws IOException {
       Files.delete(dir);
       return FileVisitResult.CONTINUE;
   }
});

Guava提供了一行代码:morefiles . deleterecursive()。

与许多共享的示例不同，它只考虑符号链接，并且不会(默认情况下)删除所提供路径之外的文件。

for(Path p : Files.walk(directoryToDelete).
        sorted((a, b) -> b.compareTo(a)). // reverse; files before dirs
        toArray(Path[]::new))
{
    Files.delete(p);
}

或者如果你想处理IOException:

Files.walk(directoryToDelete).
    sorted((a, b) -> b.compareTo(a)). // reverse; files before dirs
    forEach(p -> {
        try { Files.delete(p); }
        catch(IOException e) { /* ... */ }
      });

在遗留项目中，我需要创建本地Java代码。我创建了类似于Paulitex代码的代码。看到:

public class FileHelper {

   public static boolean delete(File fileOrFolder) {
      boolean result = true;
      if(fileOrFolder.isDirectory()) {
         for (File file : fileOrFolder.listFiles()) {
            result = result && delete(file);
         }
      }
      result = result && fileOrFolder.delete();
      return result;
   } 
}

单元测试:

public class FileHelperTest {

    @Before
    public void setup() throws IOException {
       new File("FOLDER_TO_DELETE/SUBFOLDER").mkdirs();
       new File("FOLDER_TO_DELETE/SUBFOLDER_TWO").mkdirs();
       new File("FOLDER_TO_DELETE/SUBFOLDER_TWO/TEST_FILE.txt").createNewFile();
    }

    @Test
    public void deleteFolderWithFiles() {
       File folderToDelete = new File("FOLDER_TO_DELETE");
       Assert.assertTrue(FileHelper.delete(folderToDelete));
       Assert.assertFalse(new File("FOLDER_TO_DELETE").exists());
    }

}