From 658cadceeaa540be2a517902ce0233d21546fb25 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Axel Kohlmeyer <akohlmey@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 9 Aug 2024 18:29:38 -0400
Subject: [PATCH] add helper to purge directories recursively

---
 tools/lammps-gui/helpers.cpp | 18 ++++++++++++++++++
 tools/lammps-gui/helpers.h   |  3 +++
 2 files changed, 21 insertions(+)

diff --git a/tools/lammps-gui/helpers.cpp b/tools/lammps-gui/helpers.cpp
index bc158f3bb5..47d09f4515 100644
--- a/tools/lammps-gui/helpers.cpp
+++ b/tools/lammps-gui/helpers.cpp
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@
 
 #include "helpers.h"
 
+#include <QDir>
 #include <QFile>
 #include <QFileInfo>
 #include <QProcess>
@@ -66,6 +67,23 @@ bool has_exe(const QString &exe)
         return false; // Not found!
 }
 
+// recursively remove all contents from a directory
+
+void purge_directory(const QString &dir)
+{
+    QDir directory(dir);
+
+    directory.setFilter(QDir::AllEntries | QDir::NoDotAndDotDot);
+    const auto &entries = directory.entryList();
+    for (auto &entry : entries) {
+        if (!directory.remove(entry)) {
+            directory.cd(entry);
+            directory.removeRecursively();
+            directory.cdUp();
+        }
+    }
+}
+
 // Local Variables:
 // c-basic-offset: 4
 // End:
diff --git a/tools/lammps-gui/helpers.h b/tools/lammps-gui/helpers.h
index a88233b0f3..b22b6e72c4 100644
--- a/tools/lammps-gui/helpers.h
+++ b/tools/lammps-gui/helpers.h
@@ -25,6 +25,9 @@ extern char *mystrdup(const QString &text);
 // find if executable is in path
 extern bool has_exe(const QString &exe);
 
+// recursively purge a directory
+extern void purge_directory(const QString &dir);
+
 #endif
 // Local Variables:
 // c-basic-offset: 4