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Gulp Rimraf

Gulp Rimraf is a gulp plugin that wraps the rimraf library to enable file and directory deletion within gulp build pipelines. It creates a transform stream that processes vinyl files and safely removes corresponding files and folders from the filesystem, with built-in safety features to prevent deletion of files outside the current working directory unless explicitly forced.

Package Information

Package Name: gulp-rimraf
Package Type: npm
Language: JavaScript
Installation: npm install gulp-rimraf

Core Imports

const rimraf = require('gulp-rimraf');

ES modules:

import rimraf from 'gulp-rimraf';

Basic Usage

const gulp = require('gulp');
const rimraf = require('gulp-rimraf');

// Basic usage - delete files with default settings
gulp.task('clean', function() {
  return gulp.src('./build/**/*', { read: false })
    .pipe(rimraf());
});

// With options - enable verbose logging
gulp.task('clean-verbose', function() {
  return gulp.src('./temp/**/*', { read: false })
    .pipe(rimraf({ verbose: true }));
});

// Force deletion outside current working directory
gulp.task('clean-external', function() {
  return gulp.src('../temp/*.tmp', { read: false })
    .pipe(rimraf({ force: true }));
});

Capabilities

Rimraf Stream Creation

Creates a gulp-compatible transform stream for file and directory deletion.

/**
 * Creates a transform stream that deletes files and directories from the filesystem
 * based on vinyl file paths from gulp.src()
 * @param {RimrafOptions} [options] - Configuration options for the deletion operation
 * @returns {through2.Transform} A through2 object stream compatible with gulp pipelines
 */
function rimraf(options);

Configuration Options

Options object for controlling rimraf behavior.

interface RimrafOptions {
  /**
   * Allow deletion of files outside current working directory
   * @default false
   */
  force?: boolean;
  
  /**
   * Enable verbose logging to console for each deleted file/directory
   * @default false
   */
  verbose?: boolean;
}

Types

// Return type from through2 package
interface through2.Transform extends stream.Transform {
  // Transform stream for processing vinyl file objects
  // Inherits all standard Node.js Transform stream methods
}

Safety Features

Path Protection

Current Working Directory Protection: Cannot delete the current working directory
Path Traversal Protection: By default, cannot delete files outside current working directory without force: true option
Path Resolution: Always resolves paths to prevent relative path confusion

Error Handling

The stream emits error events in the following cases:

Attempting to delete current working directory: Emits error with message "Cannot delete the current working directory: {path}"
Attempting to delete files outside CWD without force: Emits error with message "Cannot delete files or folders outside the current working directory: {path}"
Filesystem errors: Passes through any errors from the underlying rimraf library

Stream Behavior

Input: Vinyl file objects from gulp.src()
Output: Same vinyl file objects (pass-through stream)
Side Effect: Deletes files/directories from filesystem based on vinyl file paths
Read Optimization: Works best when gulp.src() uses { read: false } option for performance

Usage Patterns

Selective File Deletion

const gulp = require('gulp');
const ignore = require('gulp-ignore');
const rimraf = require('gulp-rimraf');

gulp.task('clean-js', function() {
  return gulp.src('./**/*.js', { read: false })
    .pipe(ignore('node_modules/**'))
    .pipe(rimraf());
});

Force Deletion Outside Working Directory

gulp.task('clean-temp', function() {
  return gulp.src('../temp/*.tmp', { read: false })
    .pipe(rimraf({ force: true }));
});

Verbose Logging

gulp.task('clean-with-log', function() {
  return gulp.src('./dist/**/*', { read: false })
    .pipe(rimraf({ verbose: true }));
});

Deprecation Notice

This package is deprecated in favor of using rimraf directly for simple folder deletion:

const rimraf = require('rimraf');

gulp.task('clean-simple', function(cb) {
  rimraf('./folder', cb);
});

However, gulp-rimraf remains useful for selective file deletion within gulp streams using glob patterns and pipe operations.