Using PHP To Remove Folder And Entire Contents- Help Needed

I am trying to have my script folder a directory and all it's contents.

The folder I am trying to delete is defined as $folderlocation[0].

Here's what I have so far:

$todelete = dir($folderlocation[0]); 
while($entry = $todelete->read()) { 
 if ($entry!= "." && $entry!= "..") { 
 unlink($entry); 
 } 
} 
$todelete->close(); 
rmdir($folderlocation[0]);

PHP:

If the folder is empty, everything works fine and the folder is deleted, but if there are any contents within the folder, I will get an error message like this:

Warning: unlink(filename.txt) [function.unlink]: No such file or directory in /path/to/myscript.php

Code (markup):

It is identifying each file & folder within the folder I am trying to remove, but something is still wrong. Could someone help me out a bit please?

 

NOTE: I'm beginning to think that the fact that my folder to delete is defined as an array: $folderlocation[0] is hurting me. Maybe there is some way to change it from an array to a simple string...?

 

Try this one.

$todelete = dir($folderlocation[0]);
while($entry = $todelete->read()) {
 if ($entry!= "." && $entry!= "..") {
 unlink($folderlocation[0].'/'.$entry);
 }
}
$todelete->close();
rmdir($folderlocation[0]);

PHP:

 

Thank you for your help... I tried this and it works only if the folder is empty. If there are any files inside, I get a "directory not empty" error and if it is a folder, I get a "Is a directory" error...

 

OK just tried it and this code works

$todelete = dir($folderlocation[0]);
while($entry = $todelete->read()) {
 if ($entry!= "." && $entry!= "..") {
 unlink('/'.$folderlocation[0].'/'.$entry);
 }
}
$todelete->close();
rmdir($folderlocation[0]);

PHP:

If you are still having problems then it is a permission problem.

 

stephan2307: Yeah, I am getting the same error. "Directory not empty" and "Is a directory" errors.

I have been trying a lot of different ways to try to delete a folder and it's contents via PHP- there are quite a few examples out there- but none of them seem to be working for me.

The one hangup that I have is that the directory is not exactly the same every time the script is run. That's why the directory location must be defined as $folderlocation[0], which is a home folder location pulled from the user's table in the database. If I simply echo $folderlocation[0], the correct location appears, so I know it's value is correct.

 

If you are allowing your script to have those sort of permissions, why don't you execute a shell script instead?

You can run an exec, "rm -rf foldername" to dump the whole thing.

 

To get this to work well with the recursive unlinking code I've been seeing, I have been trying to convert the SQL array (which is only one result- the user's home folder) to a simple string. Here's what I have:

	$homefolder = mysql_query("SELECT homefolder FROM df_users_permissions WHERE id=$docsuserid"); 

    $folderlocation = mysql_fetch_array($homefolder);


echo "Home folder is: $folderlocation[0] <br /><br /><br />";

// At this point, the folder location is displayed correctly. However, as I convert this to a string:

// IMPLODE FUNCTION

$new = implode("",$folderlocation);

echo "The new home folder is:<br /><br />";
echo $new;
echo "<br /><br />";

// Imploding this to a single string displays the home folder two times in a row instead of just once

//END IMPLODE FUNCTION 

PHP:

As you can see in my notes, when I implode the array to a string, the home folder is shown two times in a row- like this:

/home/user/public_html/folder/home/user/public_html/folder

I can't understand why this is displaying twice. If I can get this to work, I have a lot of code examples I can use in order to get the folder and it's files removed...

 

ok I think I know what the problem is. Does the folder that you provide in $folderlocation[0] have sub folders?

 

$folderlocation[0] is your Root or Main Dir

 

As you can see from post #8 your statement is not simply not true.

 

Right I have written a recursive function that deletes all files and folders even if you have sub folders that have sub folders with sub folders in them

function deleteFolder($folder) {
	
    $todelete = dir($folder);
    
    while($entry = $todelete->read()) {
        if ($entry!='.' && $entry!='..') {
            if(is_dir($folder.'/'.$entry)) {
                deleteFolder($folder.'/'.$entry);
            }
            if (is_file($folder.'/'.$entry)) {
                unlink($folder.'/'.$entry);
            }
        }
    }
    
    $todelete->close();
    rmdir($folder);    
}

PHP:

And you simply call it like this

deleteFolder($folderlocation[0]);

PHP:

All you need to make sure is that the path you pass in (that is stored in $folderlocation[0]) is correct.

 

That's great! Thanks so much... +rep!

 

Did it work for you?

 

I'm guessing from his reply that it did.