GDAL-VSI-DELETE(1)

📦
version 3.13.3 · 7 versions
, in alpine 3.24, arch rolling, ubuntu stonking

💅 NAME 💅

okay bestie, gather round — gdal-vsi-delete deletes files that live on the GDAL Virtual System Interface (VSI). that's it, that's the job. 🗑️✨

Added in version 3.11. so she's new-new, treat her nice 🎀

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

Usage: gdal vsi delete [OPTIONS] <FILENAME>

Delete files located on GDAL Virtual System Interface (VSI).

Positional arguments:
  --filename <FILENAME>   File or directory name to delete [required]

Common Options:
  -h, --help              Display help message and exit
  --json-usage            Display usage as JSON document and exit
  --config <KEY>=<VALUE>  Configuration option [may be repeated]

Options:
  -r, -R, --recursive     Delete directories recursively

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

so gdal vsi delete deletes files and directories that live on GDAL Virtual File Systems — think compressed stuff, network hosted stuff, etc… 👑 the ones you already know and love: /vsimem, /vsizip, /vsitar, /vsicurl, ....

it's giving the UNIX rm command but make it VSI, and heads up — gdal vsi rm is literally just an alias for gdal vsi delete. same girl, two names 💅

⚠️ WARNING: be careful, bestie. 🚨 This command cannot be undone. no undo button, no ctrl+z, no "wait wait wait". And it can also act on the "real" file system — like, your actual files. so. vibe check before you hit enter, fr fr 😭

🦋 Options 🦋

  • -r, -R, --recursive — delete directories recursively. all the way down, no survivors, periodt 💀

⭐ RETURN STATUS CODE ⭐

the program returns status code 0 when everything's a success, and non-zero when something went wrong 🫶 (also: non-blocking errors that get emitted as warnings still count as a successful execution, so don't panic over those, they're just little notifs 💖)

🌈 EXAMPLES 🌈

🌸 Example 1: Delete recursively files from /vsis3/bucket/my_dir

$ gdal vsi delete -r /vsis3/bucket/my_dir

💜 AUTHOR 💜

Even Rouault <even.rouault@spatialys.com> — the icon, the legend, the main character 👑

1998-2026

okay that's the whole page bestie, you're officially fluent in gdal vsi delete 🌸✨ this one came from the GDAL manual, source/version dated Aug 18, 2026 — go forth and delete responsibly, mwah 💅🦋

📦 where this page comes from