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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Answer 1

Bash script (7 characters, 7 bytes)

rm "$0"

Answer 2

Unix? (9):

#!/bin/rm

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

Answer 3

Batch - 6 bytes

Del %0

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

Answer 4

Ruby, 14 characters

File.delete $0

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

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)}

Answer 6

PHP, 17 characters

unlink(__FILE__);

Answer 7

PowerShell (32)

del $MyInvocation.MyCommand.Name

Answer 8

Perl 5 (8 characters)

unlink$0

$0 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

k (8)

~-1!.z.f

Or the q equivalent for 14:

hdel hsym .z.f

Answer 11

Python, 18

open(__file__,'w')

Opens itsself in write-only mode, erasing itself.

Answer 12

R, 26 characters

unlink(sys.frame(1)$ofile)

Answer 13

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 14

Nodejs, 32 bytes

require("fs").unlink(__filename)

Answer 15

JS, 37 bytes

document.documentElement.innerHTML=""

Does this count? It kills javascript on the page

Answer 16

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 17

Node.js - 22 chars

fs.unlink(__filename);

Answer 18

Julia, 13 bytes

rm(@__FILE__)

Simple. But longer. :P

Answer 19

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 20

Mathematica, 29 bytes

DeleteFile@NotebookFileName[]

Answer 21

C, 32 bytes

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

Answer 22

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 23

VBA, 69 67 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:Application.VBE.CodePanes(1).CodeModule.DeleteLines 1:End Sub

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

Answer 24

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

Answer 25

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 26

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 27

PowerShell v3 - 17

ri $PSCommandPath

Answer 28

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 29

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);} 

Answer 30

MATLAB, 36 bytes

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

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