umask
Here is simple function that will find and remove all files (except "." ones) that match the expression ($match, "*" as wildcard) under starting directory ($path) and all other directories under it.
function rfr($path,$match){
static $deld = 0, $dsize = 0;
$dirs = glob($path."*");
$files = glob($path.$match);
foreach($files as $file){
if(is_file($file)){
$dsize += filesize($file);
unlink($file);
$deld++;
}
}
foreach($dirs as $dir){
if(is_dir($dir)){
$dir = basename($dir) . "/";
rfr($path.$dir,$match);
}
}
return "$deld files deleted with a total size of $dsize bytes";
}
unlink
(PHP 4, PHP 5)
unlink — Deletes a file
Description
bool unlink ( string $filename [, resource $context] )Deletes filename. Similar to the Unix C unlink() function. Returns TRUE on success or FALSE on failure.
Note: As of PHP 5.0.0 unlink() can also be used with some URL wrappers. Refer to Appendix O, List of Supported Protocols/Wrappers for a listing of which wrappers support unlink().
Note: Context support was added with PHP 5.0.0. For a description of contexts, refer to Streams.
See also rmdir() for removing directories.
add a note
User Contributed Notesunlink
torch at torchsdomain dot com
22-Nov-2006 08:27
22-Nov-2006 08:27
paul at pes-systems dot net
16-Aug-2006 05:27
16-Aug-2006 05:27
A work around for the Permission Denied problem.
I used ftp_connect() then ftp_delete() to erase files which unlink could not erase due to permision problems
khalidz83 at yahoo dot co dot uk
15-Feb-2006 03:18
15-Feb-2006 03:18
If you get an error while deleting a file from the system, check who is the owner of the file. For example if you move to another system and the owner is 'nobody' then the owner should be nobody for that file on the new system.If you delete as another user, you will get an error.
Anarcho at ssm-clan dot de
26-Nov-2005 10:56
26-Nov-2005 10:56
Just to be a bit more accurate to the post of "jchase at solidmark dot com":
On unixoide systems you only need write permission for the directory to delete a file. The permissions of the file are nonrelevant.
You need file permissions if you want to change the file data or to read the data.
bishop
05-Jun-2005 07:30
05-Jun-2005 07:30
<?php
/**
* rm() -- Vigorously erase files and directories.
*
* @param $fileglob mixed If string, must be a file name (foo.txt), glob pattern (*.txt), or directory name.
* If array, must be an array of file names, glob patterns, or directories.
*/
function rm($fileglob)
{
if (is_string($fileglob)) {
if (is_file($fileglob)) {
return unlink($fileglob);
} else if (is_dir($fileglob)) {
$ok = rm("$fileglob/*");
if (! $ok) {
return false;
}
return rmdir($fileglob);
} else {
$matching = glob($fileglob);
if ($matching === false) {
trigger_error(sprintf('No files match supplied glob %s', $fileglob), E_USER_WARNING);
return false;
}
$rcs = array_map('rm', $matching);
if (in_array(false, $rcs)) {
return false;
}
}
} else if (is_array($fileglob)) {
$rcs = array_map('rm', $fileglob);
if (in_array(false, $rcs)) {
return false;
}
} else {
trigger_error('Param #1 must be filename or glob pattern, or array of filenames or glob patterns', E_USER_ERROR);
return false;
}
return true;
}
?>
jchase at solidmark dot com
21-May-2005 05:05
21-May-2005 05:05
[Editor's note: A suggestion for a work-around was submitted by argistof at gmail dot com: You can use the recursive option (see man chmod) when chmodding, for instance 'chmod 777 directory/ -R'. Be aware though, this will change the permissions of all files and folders in the diectory.]
Just a note which you probably all know, but I didn't, and it might save another poor sap some unnecessary time:
I was doing unlink() and fopen() on a file and got a permission denied error, even after chmoding the file to 0777.
The folder that contains the file must ALSO have write permission. Took a headache to find this out.
Hope this helps someone :)
ashley at semantic dot org
02-Apr-2005 10:50
02-Apr-2005 10:50
Actually you should use "@unlink" rather than testing with file_exists. The former is atomic, whereas the latter can break if you can't guarantee only one process will try to delete a given file at a time.
dagski_AT_gmail_DOT_com
07-Feb-2005 06:19
07-Feb-2005 06:19
before you could unlink a file created which uses a handle e.g.,
$handle = sqlite('temp.db');
unset($handle); first befofe
unlink($handle);
to avoide permission denied error.
chris at vibenewmedia dot com
14-Sep-2004 05:54
14-Sep-2004 05:54
To delete all files of a particular extension, or infact, delete all with wildcard, a much simplar way is to use the glob function. Say I wanted to delete all jpgs .........
<?php
foreach (glob("*.jpg") as $filename) {
echo "$filename size " . filesize($filename) . "\n";
unlink($filename);
}
?>
pc AT newagelab DOT com DOT ua
08-Sep-2004 03:22
08-Sep-2004 03:22
To delete files using wildcards:
<?
function delfile($str)
{
foreach(glob($str) as $fn) {
unlink($fn);
}
}
?>