PHP empty a directory/folder

Question

Suppose, I have a directory named "temp" which have a lot of trash files which are generated automatically. How do I clear/empty the "temp" directory every once a week automatically using PHP? I don't know what files are in there. I just want to empty the directory.

score 4 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 07 '14 at 13:54

You can use a code snippet like this and if your application is on a Linux based system then run a cron job.

$files = glob('path/to/folder/*'); // get all file names present in folder
foreach($files as $file){ // iterate files
  if(is_file($file))
    unlink($file); // delete the file
}

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 07 '14 at 13:54

First of all you need cron job and php script to erase the files. Here php script:

$fileToDelete = glob('path/to/temp/*');
foreach($fileToDelete as $file){ 
  if(is_file($file))
    unlink($file); 
}

After that you need to configure cron to execute this file, for example every day or as you want:

0 0 * * 0 /path/script.php //will execute every week

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 07 '14 at 13:50

1

Use a cron to call a script that will delete the entire folder, then mkdir it again.

answered Jan 07 '14 at 13:50

David Ansermot

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score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Jan 07 '14 at 13:55

Give the path of your folder in $path

$path = $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'].'/work/removegolder/'; // path of your directory 
header( 'Content-type: text/plain' ); // plain text for easy display

// preconditon: $dir ends with a forward slash (/) and is a valid directory
// postcondition: $dir and all it's sub-directories are recursively
// searched through for .svn directories. If a .svn directory is found,
// it is deleted to remove any security holes. 
function removeSVN( $dir ) {
    //echo "Searching: $dir\n\t";

    $flag = false; // haven't found .svn directory
    $svn = $dir . 'foldername';

    if( is_dir( $svn ) ) {
        if( !chmod( $svn, 0777 ) )
            echo "File permissions could not be changed (this may or may not be a problem--check the statement below).\n\t"; // if the permissions were already 777, this is not a problem

        delTree( $svn ); // remove the  directory with a helper function

        if( is_dir( $svn ) ) // deleting failed
            echo "Failed to delete $svn due to file permissions.";
        else
            echo "Successfully deleted $svn from the file system.";

        $flag = true; // found directory
    }

    if( !$flag ) // no .svn directory
        echo 'No  directory found.';
    echo "\n\n";

    $handle = opendir( $dir );
    while( false !== ( $file = readdir( $handle ) ) ) {
        if( $file == '.' || $file == '..' ) // don't get lost by recursively going through the current or top directory
            continue;

        if( is_dir( $dir . $file ) )
            removeSVN( $dir . $file . '/' ); // apply the SVN removal for sub directories
    }
}

// precondition: $dir is a valid directory
// postcondition: $dir and all it's contents are removed
// simple function found at http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.rmdir.php#93836
function delTree( $dir ) {
    $files = glob( $dir . '*', GLOB_MARK ); // find all files in the directory

    foreach( $files as $file ) {
        if( substr( $file, -1 ) == '/')
            delTree( $file ); // recursively apply this to sub directories
        else
            unlink( $file );
    }

    if ( is_dir( $dir ) ){
                //echo $dir;
               // die;
        //rmdir( $dir ); // remove the directory itself (rmdir only removes a directory once it is empty)

            }
      }

// remove all  directories in the 
// current directory and sub directories 
// (recursively applied)
removeSVN($path);

PHP empty a directory/folder

4 Answers4