Manipulating Directories and File System Operations in PHP

Creating Directories

Creating directories dynamically is a common requirement in many PHP applications. With PHP's mkdir() function, you can easily create directories on the fly. Let's take a look at an example:

$directoryPath = '/path/to/new/directory';

if (!file_exists($directoryPath)) {
    mkdir($directoryPath, 0777, true);
    echo 'Directory created successfully!';
} else {
    echo 'Directory already exists!';
}

            

In the above code snippet, we first check if the directory already exists using the file_exists() function. If it doesn't exist, we create the directory using the mkdir() function. The third parameter, set to true, ensures that parent directories are created recursively. Finally, we specify the directory's permissions using the mode 0777, granting full read, write, and execute permissions.

Listing Directory Contents

To obtain a list of files and directories within a given directory, PHP provides the scandir() function. This function returns an array of file names and directories, including . (current directory) and .. (parent directory). Here's an example:

$directoryPath = '/path/to/directory';

$contents = scandir($directoryPath);

foreach ($contents as $item) {
    echo $item . '
';
}

            

In the above code, we use a foreach loop to iterate through the array returned by scandir() and display each item. By default, scandir() sorts the items alphabetically.

Deleting Directories

Deleting directories is another common task when working with file systems. PHP offers the rmdir() function to remove empty directories. However, if you want to delete directories and their contents recursively, you can use a recursive function like this:

function deleteDirectory($directoryPath) {
    if (!file_exists($directoryPath)) {
        return;
    }

    $directoryContents = scandir($directoryPath);

    foreach ($directoryContents as $item) {
        if ($item === '.' || $item === '..') {
            continue;
        }

        $itemPath = $directoryPath . '/' . $item;

        if (is_dir($itemPath)) {
            deleteDirectory($itemPath);
        } else {
            unlink($itemPath);
        }
    }

    rmdir($directoryPath);
}

            

In the code above, we define a recursive function deleteDirectory() that takes the directory path as its parameter. We check if the directory exists and retrieve its contents using scandir(). For each item, we determine whether it's a directory or a file. If it's a directory, we recursively call deleteDirectory() on it. If it's a file, we delete it using the unlink() function. Finally, we remove the empty directory using rmdir().

Moving and Renaming Directories

PHP allows you to move and rename directories using the rename() function. The rename() function accepts two arguments: the current directory path and the new directory path or name. Here's an example:

$currentPath = '/path/to/current/directory';
$newPath = '/path/to/new/directory';

if (file_exists($currentPath)) {
    if (rename($currentPath, $newPath)) {
        echo 'Directory moved/renamed successfully!';
    } else {
        echo 'Failed to move/rename the directory!';
    }
} else {
    echo 'Directory does not exist!';
}

            

In the above code, we first check if the current directory exists using file_exists(). If it does, we use rename() to move or rename the directory. If the operation is successful, we display a success message; otherwise, we display an error message.

File System Operations

$filePath = '/path/to/new/file.txt';

$file = fopen($filePath, 'w');

if ($file) {
    fwrite($file, 'Hello, World!');
    fclose($file);
    echo 'File created successfully!';
} else {
    echo 'Failed to create the file!';
}

            

$filePath = '/path/to/file.txt';

$fileContents = file_get_contents($filePath);

echo $fileContents;

            

$filePath = '/path/to/file.txt';

if (file_exists($filePath)) {
    if (unlink($filePath)) {
        echo 'File deleted successfully!';
    } else {
        echo 'Failed to delete the file!';
    }
} else {
    echo 'File does not exist!';
}

            

$directoryPath = '/path/to/directory';

if (file_exists($directoryPath)) {
    echo 'The directory already exists.';
} else {
    echo 'The directory does not exist.';
}

        

$directoryPath = '/path/to/directory';

$contents = scandir($directoryPath);

foreach ($contents as $item) {
    echo $item . '
';
}

        

function deleteDirectory($directoryPath) {
    if (!file_exists($directoryPath)) {
        return;
    }

    $directoryContents = scandir($directoryPath);

    foreach ($directoryContents as $item) {
        if ($item === '.' || $item === '..') {
            continue;
        }

        $itemPath = $directoryPath . '/' . $item;

        if (is_dir($itemPath)) {
            deleteDirectory($itemPath);
        } else {
            unlink($itemPath);
        }
    }

    rmdir($directoryPath);
}

        

$filePath = '/path/to/new/file.txt';

$file = fopen($filePath, 'w');

if ($file) {
    // File operations...
    fclose($file);
    echo 'File created successfully!';
} else {
    echo 'Failed to create the file!';
}

        

$filePath = '/path/to/file.txt';

$fileContents = file_get_contents($filePath);

echo $fileContents;