A program that deletes itself

Question

If a compiled language is used, the program must delete the compiled executable (but need not delete the source file). If an interpreted language is used, the program must delete the source file.

My opening bid:

Python (29 characters)

import os;os.remove(__file__)

Edit: to prevent solutions like rm -rf /, the program must not delete anything except the executable or source file.

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• John Dvorak: possible duplicate of Write a program that deletes itself
• EMBLEM: @JanDvorak That question was stricter, requiring a .exe file. This is more lax.
• John Dvorak: Hmm... what if I vote to close in the opposite direction, then?
• Justin: code-golf, not popularity-contest? Aww.
• EMBLEM: @Quincunx I don't believe in popularity contests. Real code is not first validated on its elegance, but its correctness.

Answer 1

Bash script (7 characters, 7 bytes)

rm "0ドル"

• user80551: Doesn't work if the script file name contains spaces.
• anthony.c: Good eye! I've updated the script to work with files with spaces in them. Only adds two more characters. Thanks!
• John Dvorak: Does this work if the file name contains double quotes?
• Runium: @JanDvorak: Yes. By execution that would be e.g. ./the\"program, ./'the"program', './tha"program'. All works as intended. (Quotes needs to be escaped or enclosed in single quotes on call.) Would also work on files containing names with newline etc.
• MD XF: @StéphaneGourichon Probably 'cause he's running rm "0ドル" in the Bash shell instead of in a batch script. You should edit the header like so: # Bash script, 7 bytes

Answer 2

Unix? (9):

#!/bin/rm

A classic. Uses rm as interpreter, for instant self-deletion. Not the very shortest though.

• user344: Or if you want to be cheaty: a 0-byte rm program.
• Pavel: The #! line isn't counted in score.
• user62131: @Phoenix: It is if it's unusual for the language you're using; only completely standard #! lines that just give the name of the language's default interpreter count as zero. This is a very unusual #! line as far as Bash goes. (Not that this actually works in Bash, although there are other languages where it works.)
• user62131: This isn't actually a Bash program (if you run it explicitly using bash, it won't delete anything). It's a UNIX/Linux executable. (It also works in Perl, which emulates UNIX/Linux's handling of #! lines so that it can be used to run shellscripts on platforms that can't do it natively.)
• ɐɔıʇǝɥʇuʎs: @Pavel Hmm... 0 bytes?

Answer 3

Batch - 6 bytes

Del %0

Pretty simple. Note: Works even if the name contains spaces.

• Claudia: Only if the file name doesn't have spaces.
• unclemeat: @impinball, Sorry?
• Claudia: Just pointing out a little bug. If you specify DOS, it isn't, but it'll break pretty easily in Windows (ex. in Program Files). No apologies needed.
• Claudia: My bad...it's okay. I misremembered that quotes aren't needed in this case because they are automatically included in this.
• unclemeat: All good. Adding tilde removes surrounding quotes. %~0.

Answer 4

Ruby, 14 characters

File.delete 0ドル

0ドル is a special global variable that contains the name of the currently running script.

• Darren Stone: I'm pretty sure you can drop the space.
• Cruncher: This is why I made my version of the question much more strict. Interpreted languages can do it with no problem. The idea is that a natively running application can't just pull the rug out from underneath itself

Answer 5

BASIC-80 / BASICA / GW-BASIC / IBM BASIC / Commodore 64 BASIC / Vintage BASIC / Commodore LCD BASIC / Atari BASIC *

5 bytes

1 NEW

Well, that's about as simple as it gets. NEW creates a new program, so putting this anywhere in your program will delete it.

Proof of concept on IBM BASIC (putting NEW on line 40 for clarity):

^{* Yeah, I listed every old BASIC version I've tested this in (or pretty much ever used)}

• Wossname: +1, There is something rather poetic about this. Existential even.

Answer 6

PHP, 17 characters

unlink(__FILE__);

• primo: I'm not sure why anyone would downvote this; it's perfectly valid. You may want to include an open tag, though <?unlink(__FILE__);
• user11779: This PHP program prints unlink(__FILE__);. It does not delete the file.
• Darren H: @rightfold it works as described if you include an opening tag, which I would have assumed to add

Answer 7

PowerShell (32)

del $MyInvocation.MyCommand.Name

Answer 8

Perl 5 (8 characters)

unlink0ドル

0ドル is the script name, and unlink removes it. Normally, you'd at least add a space in between for readability.

Answer 9

C# (112)

Process.Start("cmd.exe","/C choice /C Y /N /D Y /T 3 & Del " + Application.ExecutablePath);
Application.Exit();

Shamelessly stolen from http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/31454/How-To-Make-Your-Application-Delete-Itself-Immedia

Answer 10

R, 26 characters

unlink(sys.frame(1)$ofile)

Answer 11

k (8)

~-1!.z.f

Or the q equivalent for 14:

hdel hsym .z.f

Answer 12

Python, 18

open(__file__,'w')

Opens itsself in write-only mode, erasing itself.

• user11779: This truncates the file. It does not delete it.

Answer 13

Node.js - 22 chars

fs.unlink(__filename);

Answer 14

Julia, 13 bytes

rm(@__FILE__)

Simple. But longer. :P

Answer 15

Vitsy + bash, 8 bytes

iG' mr',
iG Get the name of the use declaration at the top item (-1) (returns the current one)
 ' mr' Concatenate "rm " to the front of it.
 , Execute via shell.

Answer 16

Mathematica, 29 bytes

DeleteFile@NotebookFileName[]

Answer 17

Lua, 17 bytes

os.remove(arg[0])

This actually only works if you run the program by typing out the full filepath, i.e.
lua ~/Scripts/removeself.lua would work, but lua removeself.lua would not, assuming a filename of removeself.lua and a current working directory of ~/Scripts.

As far as I know, there's no way to find the actual filepath of a script, just the arguments passed to it. I do know about debug.getinfo(1).source, but in my testing that game exactly the same results as arg[0]. If anyone knows of a way to find the filepath, please let me know.

Answer 18

JS, 37 bytes

document.documentElement.innerHTML=""

Does this count? It kills javascript on the page

• user58826: You don't need the spaces around the =

Answer 19

tcl, 18

file delete $argv0

demo — ATTENTION: It is only a one time demo! Only the first time it will be runnable. Please reserve it to the question's original poster. To try: press the Execute button. The green area will not report any error. After that, any subsequent clicks on the Execute button will result on a not found error!

Answer 20

shortC, 10 bytes

Aremove(*@

How it works:

A main function
 remove( delete file specified in next string
 *@ program name

Equivalent C program:

int main(int argc, char **argv){remove(*argv);}

Answer 21

C, 32 bytes

main(c,v)char**v;{remove(v[0]);}

• CalculatorFeline: Missing }s are allowed in C? Wow!
• Josh: Nope, just a typo! My character count included the closing } but I apparently copy/pasted the snippet incorrectly. Thanks for pointing it out!
• MD XF: Well, since the anonymous downvoter doesn't feel like leaving a comment or retracting their vote, I have deleted my answer, which I based off of yours. You can golf this down to 29 bytes: main(c,v)int**v;{remove(*v);}
• Josh: @MDXF I am not sure if changing char** to int** is technically valid. I'm worried about potential alignment issues.
• MD XF: @Josh Well; it works... so I don't see why not. Code golf is all about using horrible methods that aren't technically valid.

Answer 22

JavaScript (ES6), 13 bytes

f=_=>delete f

---

Try It

Logs the source of f, calls f (which deletes f), tries to log f again but throws an error because f is now undefined.

f=_=>delete f
console.log(f)
f()
console.log(f)

Answer 23

8086/8088 machine code, 1 byte

aa stosb

Assumptions:

• The registers CS, IP, ES, DI, and AL are all initially 0.
• This code is placed at address 0.

The stosb instruction stores the byte in the AL register at the memory location pointed to by ES and DI, then increments or decrements DI. In this case, it stores the byte 0 at the memory address 0, which happens to be where the instruction itself is.

Granted, this program doesn't delete a file or anything. But if you manage to get your hands on an 8086 processor, poke this program into memory, and run it, it will in fact overwrite itself.

Answer 24

VBA, (削除) 69 (削除ここまで) 62 Bytes

Subroutine that takes no input and deletes itself.

Requires that the code below be the first line in the active code pane, and that VBA has trusted access to the VBE Project model.

Sub A:Parent.VBE.CodePanes(1).CodeModule.DeleteLines 1:End Sub

-2 bytes for replacing ActiveCodePane with with CodePane(1)

-5 bytes for replacing Application with Parent

Answer 25

PowerShell v3 - 17

ri $PSCommandPath

Answer 26

Julia - 25 bytes

Write this into a file, and then include the file with include("<filename here>") and run f():

f()=rm(functionloc(f)[1])

This is, obviously, a function - I'm not sure how one would go about detecting the file name of a file being run directly (as an include statement without a function definition in it).

Answer 27

C++, 137 bytes.

Works most of the time on windows

#include <stdlib.h> 
#include <string>
int main(int, char*v[]){char c[99];sprintf(c,"start cmd /C del \"%s\"/Q", *v);return system(c);}

C, 90 bytes

void main(int n,char**v){char c[99];sprintf(c,"start cmd /C del \"%s\"/Q", *v);system(c);} 

• Addison Crump: Most of the time?
• user45941: You could save a lot of bytes by removing the unused #include <string>, removing extraneous spaces, and making this C, which lets you remove the int and return. Additionally, you need #include <stdio.h> to make this work, since that's where sprintf is declared.

Answer 28

MATLAB, 36 bytes

delete([mfilename('fullpath'),'.m'])

Save the above code as an m-file following Matlab's filename guidelines.

Answer 29

Nodejs, 32 bytes

require("fs").unlink(__filename)

Answer 30

T-SQL, 28 bytes

CREATE PROC d AS DROP PROC d

It just drops/removes the procedure and the code when executing itself. Usage:

EXECUTE d