PHP - how to get most recent file from directory AND subdirectories

Question

I have used the following script to correctly display ALL files from the selected directory and its sub-directories. Does anyone know how to modify this code only echo the most recent file across the directory/subdirectories?

function ListFiles($dir) {

    if($dh = opendir($dir)) {

        $files = Array();
        $inner_files = Array();

        while($file = readdir($dh)) {
            if($file != "." && $file != ".." && $file[0] != '.') {
                if(is_dir($dir . "/" . $file)) {
                    $inner_files = ListFiles($dir . "/" . $file);
                    if(is_array($inner_files)) $files = array_merge($files, $inner_files); 
                } else {
                    array_push($files, $dir . "/" . $file);
                }
            }
        }

        closedir($dh);
        return $files;
    }
}


foreach (ListFiles('media/com_form2content/documents/c30') as $key=>$file){
    echo "{aridoc engine=\"google\" width=\"750\" height=\"900\"}" . $file ."{/aridoc}";
}

Answer 1

In PHP5 you can use RecursiveDirectoryIterator to recursively scan all files in a directory:

$mostRecentFilePath = "";
$mostRecentFileMTime = 0;

$iterator = new RecursiveIteratorIterator(new RecursiveDirectoryIterator("YOURDIR"), RecursiveIteratorIterator::CHILD_FIRST);
foreach ($iterator as $fileinfo) {
    if ($fileinfo->isFile()) {
        if ($fileinfo->getMTime() > $mostRecentFileMTime) {
            $mostRecentFileMTime = $fileinfo->getMTime();
            $mostRecentFilePath = $fileinfo->getPathname();
        }
    }
}

Answer 2

You can use filemtime() to retrieve file's last modified unix timestamp.

Answer 3

you can use this to get last addition file in directory

$path = "/path/to/my/dir"; 

$latest_ctime = 0;
$latest_filename = '';    

$d = dir($path);
while (false !== ($entry = $d->read())) {
  $filepath = "{$path}/{$entry}";
  // could do also other checks than just checking whether the entry is a file
  if (is_file($filepath) && filectime($filepath) > $latest_ctime) {
      $latest_ctime = filectime($filepath);
      $latest_filename = $entry;
    }
  }
}

Answer 4

you can try this

$last_mtimes = array(); 
function ListFiles($dir) {

if($dh = opendir($dir)) {

$files = Array();
$inner_files = Array();

while($file = readdir($dh)) {
    if($file != "." && $file != ".." && $file[0] != '.') {
        if(is_dir($dir . "/" . $file)) {
            $inner_files = ListFiles($dir . "/" . $file);
            if(is_array($inner_files)) $files = array_merge($files, $inner_files); 
        } else {
            array_push($files, $dir . "/" . $file);
             $lmtime = filemtime($dir . "/" . $file) ;
             $last_mtimes[$lmtime] = $dir . "/" . $file;
        }
    }
}
 // now ksort your $last_mtimes array
krsort($last_mtimes);
// either return this array or do whatever with the first val
closedir($dh);
return ($last_mtimes);

}
}
// prints in decsending order
foreach (ListFiles('PATH_TO_YOUR_DIRECTORY') as $key=>$file){
echo "{aridoc engine=\"google\" width=\"750\" height=\"900\"}" . $key."=>".$file ."  {/aridoc}";
 }
 // prints last modified files
 echo array_shift(ListFiles('YOUR_DIRECTORY_PATH'));

hope this helps

Answer 5

I would recommend you use the filemtime() function.

This will give you the files last modified date.