From a2793e4daf0d5f350822e0882c06c8da8ee8fd4f Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Mahdi Ali-Raihan <asder8215@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 4 Apr 2026 16:08:16 -0400
Subject: [PATCH] Changed implementation of remove_dir_all from recursive to an
 iterative version

---
 library/std/src/sys/fs/common.rs | 54 ++++++++++++++++++++++----------
 1 file changed, 38 insertions(+), 16 deletions(-)

diff --git a/library/std/src/sys/fs/common.rs b/library/std/src/sys/fs/common.rs
index 4d47d392a8268..2ed50f707be3f 100644
--- a/library/std/src/sys/fs/common.rs
+++ b/library/std/src/sys/fs/common.rs
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 #![allow(dead_code)] // not used on all platforms
+use alloc_crate::collections::VecDeque;
 
 use crate::io::{self, Error, ErrorKind};
 use crate::path::{Path, PathBuf};
@@ -29,27 +30,48 @@ pub fn copy(from: &Path, to: &Path) -> io::Result<u64> {
 
 pub fn remove_dir_all(path: &Path) -> io::Result<()> {
     let filetype = fs::symlink_metadata(path)?.file_type();
-    if filetype.is_symlink() { fs::remove_file(path) } else { remove_dir_all_recursive(path) }
+    if filetype.is_symlink() { fs::remove_file(path) } else { remove_dir_all_iterative(path) }
 }
 
-fn remove_dir_all_recursive(path: &Path) -> io::Result<()> {
-    for child in fs::read_dir(path)? {
-        let result: io::Result<()> = try {
-            let child = child?;
-            if child.file_type()?.is_dir() {
-                remove_dir_all_recursive(&child.path())?;
-            } else {
-                fs::remove_file(&child.path())?;
+fn remove_dir_all_iterative(path: &Path) -> io::Result<()> {
+    // In unix/windows/solid/hermit/motor/uefi implementation of ReadDir struct, there is a field
+    // called `root` that contains the directory path that we are reading directory entries
+    // from. This makes holding a PathBuf in this tuple redundant since we only need this to remove
+    // the directory when we have exhausted the ReadDir iterator; if we can expose that field
+    // in the ReadDir struct through a method that return &Path, we can reduce memory usage
+    // allocated to this VecDeque.
+
+    let mut directories = VecDeque::new();
+    directories.push_front((path.to_path_buf(), fs::read_dir(path)?));
+
+    while !directories.is_empty() {
+        let (parent_path, read_dir) = &mut directories[0];
+        let child = read_dir.next();
+        if let Some(child) = child {
+            let result: io::Result<()> = try {
+                let child = child?;
+                let child_path = child.path();
+                if child.file_type()?.is_dir() {
+                    let child_readdir = fs::read_dir(&child_path)?;
+                    directories.push_front((child_path, child_readdir));
+                } else {
+                    fs::remove_file(&child_path)?;
+                }
+            };
+
+            // ignore internal NotFound errors to prevent race conditions
+            if let Err(err) = &result
+                && err.kind() != io::ErrorKind::NotFound
+            {
+                return result;
             }
-        };
-        // ignore internal NotFound errors to prevent race conditions
-        if let Err(err) = &result
-            && err.kind() != io::ErrorKind::NotFound
-        {
-            return result;
+        } else {
+            ignore_notfound(fs::remove_dir(parent_path))?;
+            directories.pop_front();
         }
     }
-    ignore_notfound(fs::remove_dir(path))
+
+    Ok(())
 }
 
 pub fn exists(path: &Path) -> io::Result<bool> {