PHP: Unlink All Files Within A Directory, and then Deleting That Directory

Question

Is there any way I can use RegExp or Wildcard searches to quickly delete all files within a folder, and then remove that folder in PHP, WITHOUT using the "exec" command? My server does not give me authorization to use that command. A simple loop of some kind would suffice.

I need something that would accomplish the logic behind the following statement, but obviously, would be valid:

$dir = "/home/dir"
unlink($dir . "/*"); # "*" being a match for all strings
rmdir($dir);

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3349753/php-delete-directory-with-files-in-it — John, Jun 29 '12 at 18:32
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3338123/how-do-i-recursively-delete-a-directory-and-its-entire-contents-filessub-dirs — Jocelyn, Jun 29 '12 at 18:35

score 84 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 10 '13 at 22:01

84

Use glob to find all files matching a pattern.

function recursiveRemoveDirectory($directory)
{
    foreach(glob("{$directory}/*") as $file)
    {
        if(is_dir($file)) { 
            recursiveRemoveDirectory($file);
        } else {
            unlink($file);
        }
    }
    rmdir($directory);
}

edited Apr 10 '13 at 22:01

Steven Byle

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answered Jun 29 '12 at 18:32

Lusitanian

11,012
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3

I got an error `maximum function nesting level of '100' reached` – Smith Apr 17 '14 at 01:05
I was having permission issues with a `scandir` function in my code, now it works perfectly with this version! – SeinopSys Jul 16 '14 at 21:36
2

glob takes care of hidden files? – amar Nov 08 '15 at 16:08
awesome solution :D – FosAvance May 28 '16 at 18:20
1

Instead of just `} else {` use `} else if(!is_link($file)) {` to be symlink safe – jla Sep 02 '19 at 00:02
Be careful with `glob` and large number of files. It could consume a lot of memory and result in performance problems under certain conditions. – Taras Jul 02 '23 at 12:05

John Conde · Answer 2 · 2014-11-04T16:36:35.703

18

Use glob() to easily loop through the directory to delete files then you can remove the directory.

foreach (glob($dir."/*.*") as $filename) {
    if (is_file($filename)) {
        unlink($filename);
    }
}
rmdir($dir);

edited Nov 04 '14 at 16:36

answered Jun 29 '12 at 18:33

John Conde

217,595
99
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16

this code is dangerous, path should be included in the glob like so `glob($dir."/*.*")`. i tried it and it wiped out all the directory including top ones my hard work – Smith Apr 17 '14 at 01:16

score 10 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 29 '12 at 18:36

10

The glob() function does what you're looking for. If you're on PHP 5.3+ you could do something like this:

$dir = ...
array_walk(glob($dir . '/*'), function ($fn) {
    if (is_file($fn))
        unlink($fn);
});
unlink($dir);

answered Jun 29 '12 at 18:36

svens

11,438
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score 8 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 24 '15 at 20:04

A simple and effective way of deleting all files and folders recursively with Standard PHP Library, to be specific, RecursiveIteratorIterator and RecursiveDirectoryIterator. The point is in RecursiveIteratorIterator::CHILD_FIRST flag, iterator will loop through files first, and directory at the end, so once the directory is empty it is safe to use rmdir().

foreach( new RecursiveIteratorIterator( 
    new RecursiveDirectoryIterator( 'folder', FilesystemIterator::SKIP_DOTS | FilesystemIterator::UNIX_PATHS ), 
    RecursiveIteratorIterator::CHILD_FIRST ) as $value ) {
        $value->isFile() ? unlink( $value ) : rmdir( $value );
}

rmdir( 'folder' );

This is a beautiful answer from almost 10 years ago... I love the RecursiveIteratorIterator and RecursiveDirectoryIterator implementation in PHP because not only they are standard and safe,m but also fast and clean. This should be the one answer that everyone uses! This is a beautiful answer from almost 10 years ago... I love the RecursiveIteratorIterator and RecursiveDirectoryIterator implementation in PHP because not only they are standard and safe, but also fast and clean. This should be the one answer that everyone uses! — Julio Marchi, Jul 20 '23 at 23:43

Ahosan Karim Asik · Answer 5 · 2016-04-10T10:47:18.677

Try easy way:

$dir = "/home/dir";
array_map('unlink', glob($dir."/*"));
rmdir($dir);

In Function for remove dir:

function unlinkr($dir, $pattern = "*") {
        // find all files and folders matching pattern
        $files = glob($dir . "/$pattern"); 
        //interate thorugh the files and folders
        foreach($files as $file){ 
            //if it is a directory then re-call unlinkr function to delete files inside this directory     
            if (is_dir($file) and !in_array($file, array('..', '.')))  {
                unlinkr($file, $pattern);
                //remove the directory itself
                rmdir($file);
                } else if(is_file($file) and ($file != __FILE__)) {
                // make sure you don't delete the current script
                unlink($file); 
            }
        }
        rmdir($dir);
    }

//call following way:
unlinkr("/home/dir");

While this code snippet may solve the question, [including an explanation](http://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/114762/explaining-entirely-code-based-answers) really helps to improve the quality of your post. Remember that you are answering the question for readers in the future, and those people might not know the reasons for your code suggestion. — Bono, Mar 12 '15 at 13:54

score 4 · Answer 6 · answered Jan 09 '15 at 14:07

You can use the Symfony Filesystem component, to avoid re-inventing the wheel, so you can do

use Symfony\Component\Filesystem\Filesystem;

$filesystem = new Filesystem();

if ($filesystem->exists('/home/dir')) {
    $filesystem->remove('/home/dir');
}

If you prefer to manage the code yourself, here's the Symfony codebase for the relevant methods

class MyFilesystem
{
    private function toIterator($files)
    {
        if (!$files instanceof \Traversable) {
            $files = new \ArrayObject(is_array($files) ? $files : array($files));
        }

        return $files;
    }

    public function remove($files)
    {
        $files = iterator_to_array($this->toIterator($files));
        $files = array_reverse($files);
        foreach ($files as $file) {
            if (!file_exists($file) && !is_link($file)) {
                continue;
            }

            if (is_dir($file) && !is_link($file)) {
                $this->remove(new \FilesystemIterator($file));

                if (true !== @rmdir($file)) {
                    throw new \Exception(sprintf('Failed to remove directory "%s".', $file), 0, null, $file);
                }
            } else {
                // https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=52176
                if ('\\' === DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR && is_dir($file)) {
                    if (true !== @rmdir($file)) {
                        throw new \Exception(sprintf('Failed to remove file "%s".', $file), 0, null, $file);
                    }
                } else {
                    if (true !== @unlink($file)) {
                        throw new \Exception(sprintf('Failed to remove file "%s".', $file), 0, null, $file);
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }

    public function exists($files)
    {
        foreach ($this->toIterator($files) as $file) {
            if (!file_exists($file)) {
                return false;
            }
        }

        return true;
    }
}

score 1 · Answer 7 · answered Jun 29 '12 at 18:35

1

One way of doing it would be:

function unlinker($file)
{
    unlink($file);
}
$files = glob('*.*');
array_walk($files,'unlinker');
rmdir($dir);

answered Jun 29 '12 at 18:35

Adi

5,089
6
33
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score 0 · Answer 8 · answered Nov 20 '17 at 09:40

0

for removing all the files you can remove the directory and make again.. with a simple line of code

<?php 
    $dir = '/home/files/';
    rmdir($dir);
    mkdir($dir);
?>

answered Nov 20 '17 at 09:40

MD Alauddin Al-Amin

94
1
13

zidanpragata · Answer 9 · 2023-07-12T12:15:57.600

without creating an array first, definitely faster. sometimes it takes special handling why a folder cannot be deleted.

function clean_dir($dir){
        $error='';
        $dh=opendir($dir);
        while($dh&&($file=readdir($dh))!=false){
            if($file=='.'||$file=='..')continue;
            $rp=$dir=='.'?$file:"$dir/$file";
            if(!is_readable($rp)){$error.=PHP_EOL.$rp;continue;}
            if(is_link($rp))@unlink(readlink($rp));
            elseif(is_file($rp))
            chmod($rp,octdec(644))!=false?@unlink($rp):$error.=PHP_EOL.$rp;
            elseif(is_dir($rp)){
                if(chmod($rp,octdec(755))!=false)
                    count(scandir($rp))==2?@rmdir($rp):clean_dir($rp);
                else{$error.=PHP_EOL.$rp;}
            }
        }
        closedir($dh);
        return($error);
    }

PHP: Unlink All Files Within A Directory, and then Deleting That Directory

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