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How to Delete a Directory and its Contents in PHP?

Linda Hamilton
Linda HamiltonOriginal
2024-12-25 22:37:161017browse

How to Delete a Directory and its Contents in PHP?

Deleting a Directory with Nested Files

Q: I'm trying to delete a directory using rmdir() but it fails if the directory contains files. How can I delete a directory and all of its contents?

A: Here are two methods to delete a directory with all its files:

  1. Recursive Deletion: Recursively iterate through the directory and delete each file and subdirectory before removing the parent directory.
function deleteDir(string $dirPath): void {
    if (! is_dir($dirPath)) {
        throw new InvalidArgumentException("$dirPath must be a directory");
    }
    if (substr($dirPath, strlen($dirPath) - 1, 1) != '/') {
        $dirPath .= '/';
    }
    $files = glob($dirPath . '*', GLOB_MARK);
    foreach ($files as $file) {
        if (is_dir($file)) {
            deleteDir($file);
        } else {
            unlink($file);
        }
    }
    rmdir($dirPath);
}
  1. RecursiveIterator Iteration: For PHP 5.2 and above, use RecursiveIterator() to iterate over the directory and its contents.
function removeDir(string $dir): void {
    $it = new RecursiveDirectoryIterator($dir, RecursiveDirectoryIterator::SKIP_DOTS);
    $files = new RecursiveIteratorIterator($it,
                 RecursiveIteratorIterator::CHILD_FIRST);
    foreach($files as $file) {
        if ($file->isDir()){
            rmdir($file->getPathname());
        } else {
            unlink($file->getPathname());
        }
    }
    rmdir($dir);
}

Either of these methods will effectively delete a directory including all its files and subdirectories.

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