How to delete a file via PHP?

Question

How do I delete a file from my server with PHP if the file is in another directory?

Here is my page layout:

• projects/backend/removeProjectData.php (this file deletes all my entries for the database and should also delete the related file)
• public_files/22.pdf (the place where the file is located.)

I'm using the unlink function:

unlink('../../public_files/' . $fileName);

But this always gives me an error that the file does not exist. Any ideas?

Answer 1

The following should help

• realpath — Returns canonicalized absolute pathname
• is_writable — Tells whether the filename is writable
• unlink — Deletes a file

Run your filepath through realpath, then check if the returned path is writable and if so, unlink it.

Answer 2

$files = [
    './first.jpg',
    './second.jpg',
    './third.jpg'
];

foreach ($files as $file) {
    if (file_exists($file)) {
        unlink($file);
    } else {
        // File not found.
    }
}

Answer 3

Check your permissions first of all on the file, to make sure you can a) see it from your script, and b) are able to delete it.

You can also use a path calculated from the directory you're currently running the script in, eg:

unlink(dirname(__FILE__) . "/../../public_files/" . $filename);

(in PHP 5.3 I believe you can use the __DIR__ constant instead of dirname() but I've not used it myself yet)

Answer 4

You can delete the file using

unlink($Your_file_path);

but if you are deleting a file from it's http path then this unlink is not work proper. You have to give a file path correct.

Answer 5

AIO solution, handles everything, It's not my work but I just improved myself. Enjoy!

/**
 * Unlink a file, which handles symlinks.
 * @see https://github.com/luyadev/luya/blob/master/core/helpers/FileHelper.php
 * @param string $filename The file path to the file to delete.
 * @return boolean Whether the file has been removed or not.
 */
function unlinkFile ( $filename ) {
    // try to force symlinks
    if ( is_link ($filename) ) {
        $sym = @readlink ($filename);
        if ( $sym ) {
            return is_writable ($filename) && @unlink ($filename);
        }
    }

    // try to use real path
    if ( realpath ($filename) && realpath ($filename) !== $filename ) {
        return is_writable ($filename) && @unlink (realpath ($filename));
    }

    // default unlink
    return is_writable ($filename) && @unlink ($filename);
}

Answer 6

I know this question is a bit old, but this is something simple that works for me very well to delete images off my project I'm working on.

unlink(dirname(__FILE__) . "/img/tasks/" . 'image.jpg');

The dirname(__FILE__) section prints out the base path to your project. The /img/tasks/ are two folders down from my base path. And finally, there's my image I want to delete which you can make into anything you need to.

With this I have not had any problem getting to my files on my server and deleting them.