how to delete a folder with contents using PHP

Question

I am in need to delete a folder with contents using PHP. rmdir( ) and unlink( ) are deleting the folder which is empty. But not able to delete the folders which contain contents.

could anyone help me regarding this issue.

thanks in Advance...

Fero

Answer 1

You need to loop around the folder contents (including the contents of any subfolders) and remove them first.

There's an example here: http://lixlpixel.org/recursive%5Ffunction/php/recursive%5Fdirectory%5Fdelete/

Be careful with it!!!

Answer 2

You could always cheat and do shell_exec("rm -rf /path/to/folder");

Answer 3

You will have to delete all the files recursively. There are plenty example functions in the comments of the rmdir manual page:

http://www.php.net/rmdir

Answer 4

There are some useful libraries for recursive deletion of directories here.

Answer 5

This function will allow you to delete any folder (as long as it's writable) and it's files and subdirectories.

function Delete($path)
{
    if (is_dir($path) === true)
    {
     $files = array_diff(scandir($path), array('.', '..'));

     foreach ($files as $file)
     {
      Delete(realpath($path) . '/' . $file);
     }

     return rmdir($path);
    }

    else if (is_file($path) === true)
    {
     return unlink($path);
    }

    return false;
}

Answer 6

There is no single function build into PHP that would allow this, you have to write your own with rmdir and unlink.

An example (taken from a comment on php.net docs):

<?
// ensure $dir ends with a slash
function delTree($dir) {
    $files = glob( $dir . '*', GLOB_MARK );
    foreach( $files as $file ){
        if( substr( $file, -1 ) == '/' )
            delTree( $file );
        else
            unlink( $file );
    }
    rmdir( $dir );
}
?>

Answer 7

Here's a script that will do just what you need:

/**
 * Recursively delete a directory
 *
 * @param string $dir Directory name
 * @param boolean $deleteRootToo Delete specified top-level directory as well
 */
function unlinkRecursive($dir, $deleteRootToo)
{
    if(!$dh = @opendir($dir))
    {
        return;
    }
    while (false !== ($obj = readdir($dh)))
    {
        if($obj == '.' || $obj == '..')
        {
            continue;
        }

        if (!@unlink($dir . '/' . $obj))
        {
            unlinkRecursive($dir.'/'.$obj, true);
        }
    }

    closedir($dh);

    if ($deleteRootToo)
    {
        @rmdir($dir);
    }

    return;
}

I got it from php.net and it works.

Answer 8

Take a look at this Delete a file, or a folder and its contents

Answer 9

Perhaps a better approach is to use rm (if you're under linux). It would go something like this ($root should ALWAYS be set to your TMP directory to prevent deleting vital files!):

function remove($dir) {

    $root = $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'].'/tmp/';

    if (is_dir($root.$dir)) {

     exec('rm -rf '.$root.$dir);

    }

}