How to empty folder in php

Question

Summary: in this tutorial, you will learn how to delete a file in PHP using the unlink() function.

Table of Contents Show

Introduction to the PHP delete file function
1) Simple PHP delete file example
2) Delete all files in a directory that match a pattern
How do you empty a directory in PHP?
How do I empty a folder?
How do you empty a file in PHP?
How can I delete all files in a directory in PHP?

Introduction to the PHP delete file function

To delete a file, you use the unlink() function:

unlink ( string $filename , resource $context = ? ) : bool
Code language: PHP (php)

The unlink() function has two parameters:

$filename is the full path to the file that you want to delete.
$context is a valid context resource.

The unlink() function returns true if it deletes the file successfully or false otherwise. If the $filename doesn’t exist, the unlink() function also issues a warning and returns false.

Let’s take some examples of using the unlink() function.

1) Simple PHP delete file example

The following example uses the unlink() function to delete the readme.txt file:

<?php

$filename = 'readme.txt';

if (unlink($filename)) {
	echo 'The file ' . $filename . ' was deleted successfully!';
} else {
	echo 'There was a error deleting the file ' . $filename;
}
Code language: HTML, XML (xml)

2) Delete all files in a directory that match a pattern

The following example deletes all files with the .tmp extension:

<?php

$dir = 'temp/';
array_map('unlink', glob("{$dir}*.tmp"));



Code language: HTML, XML (xml)

How it works.

First, define a variable that stores the path to the directory in which you want to delete files.
Second, use the glob() function to search for all files in the directory $dir that has the *.tmp extension and pass it result to the array_map() function to delete the files.

Generally, you can change the pattern to delete all matching files in a directory using the array_map(), unlink() and glob() functions.

Summary

Use PHP unlink() function to delete a file.

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	<?php
	function EmptySubFolders($path) {
	$empty = true;
	foreach(glob($path.DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR."*") as $file) {
	if (is_dir($file)) {
	if (!EmptySubFolders($file)) {
	$empty = false;
	}
	}
	else {
	$empty = false;
	}
	}
	if($empty) {
	touch($path."/empty-folder");
	}
	return $empty;
	}
	EmptySubFolders('.');
	?>

In this post, I will show you how you can delete all files and folders from a folder using PHP. This is pretty straight-forward, as we simply loop through the files and delete them.

First of all, we would like to show you how to delete only files from a folder.

<?php

//The name of the folder.
$folder = 'files';

//Get a list of all of the file names in the folder.
$files = glob($folder . '/*');

//Loop through the file list.
foreach($files as $file){
//Make sure that this is a file and not a directory.
if(is_file($file)){
//Use the unlink function to delete the file.
unlink($file);
}
}

Earlier we have seen about deleting just files which are present in a directory. Now, What if you have sub directories with files inside the folder. In that case the above script won’t able to work. You’ll need to create recursive function to delete all files, sub-directories and parent directory altogether.

Simply deleting a folder with using php’s function rmdir() won’t work. It will throw some exceptions if you attempt to remove folder directly with files in it. So first of all you have to delete files one by one from each sub folder and then delete folders by removing parent folder.

So, here is the recursive function to delete files and sub folders from the folder.

<?php
// delete all files and sub-folders from a folder
function deleteAll($dir) {
foreach(glob($dir . '/*') as $file) {
if(is_dir($file))
deleteAll($file);
else
unlink($file);
}
rmdir($dir);
}
?>

This is the function which will help you out to delete folder and sub folders and also files. You can use this function by simply calling:

<?php deleteAll('folder_name'); ?>

The function above basically checks to see if the $file variable represents a path to a file. If it does represent a path to a file, it deletes the file using the function unlink. However, if $file represents a directory, then it gets a list of all files in said directory before deleting each one. Finally, it removes the sub-directory itself by using PHP’s rmdir function.

You can use the above php script to delete files and sub-directories in a given folder programmatically. The script is relatively fast but it depends on the amount of files and folders to be deleted.

How do you empty a directory in PHP?

The rmdir() function in PHP is an inbuilt function which is used to remove an empty directory. It is mandatory for the directory to be empty, and it must have the relevant permissions which are required to delete the directory.

How do I empty a folder?

To remove a directory and all its contents, including any subdirectories and files, use the rm command with the recursive option, -r . Directories that are removed with the rmdir command cannot be recovered, nor can directories and their contents removed with the rm -r command.

How do you empty a file in PHP?

To delete a file in PHP, use the unlink function. Let's go through an example to see how it works. The first argument of the unlink function is a filename which you want to delete. The unlink function returns either TRUE or FALSE , depending on whether the delete operation was successful.

How can I delete all files in a directory in PHP?

Validate the file while checking if the file directory has a dot or not. Using the getPathName method reference, delete the file using unlink() method..

Generate a list of files using glob() method..

Iterate over the list of files..

Check whether the name of files is valid..

Delete the file using unlink() method..

kode php Php delete