PHP: unlink - Manual

Description

bool unlink ( string filename [, resource context] )

Deletes filename. Similar to the Unix C unlink() function. Returns TRUE on success or FALSE on failure.

Note: As of PHP 5.0.0 unlink() can also be used with some URL wrappers. Refer to Appendix L for a listing of which wrappers support unlink().

Note: Context support was added with PHP 5.0.0. For a description of contexts, refer to Reference CXXII, Stream Functions.

See also rmdir() for removing directories.

User Contributed Notes
unlink

kickthedonkey at gmail dot com
17-May-2005 06:24


Regarding the comment by 'admin at crazydrumguy dot info':  You might want to consider using is_file instead of file_exists if you're wanting to target a file specifically (and not a directory).  file_exists($name) will return true if $name contains a path to a directory (which may or may not be what you want to do...)

ashley at semantic dot org
02-Apr-2005 04:50


Actually you should use "@unlink" rather than testing with file_exists. The former is atomic, whereas the latter can break if you can't guarantee only one process will try to delete a given file at a time.

dagski_AT_gmail_DOT_com
07-Feb-2005 12:19


before you could unlink a file created which uses a handle e.g., 



$handle = sqlite('temp.db'); 



unset($handle); first befofe

unlink($handle);



to avoide permission denied error.

admin at crazydrumguy dot info
22-Jan-2005 07:43


Regarding the previous note, you can accomplish the same thing by using file_exists.

<?php

if(file_exists($file))

unlink($file);

?>

xenon54 at generationphp dot net
28-Dec-2004 10:03


Use @ to avoid having a warning error if the file is not found.



<?php

$return = @unlink('filename.txt');

// Return FALSE if not found

var_dump($return);

?>

chris at vibenewmedia dot com
14-Sep-2004 12:54


To delete all files of a particular extension, or infact, delete all with wildcard, a much simplar way is to use the glob function.  Say I wanted to delete all jpgs .........



<?php



foreach (glob("*.jpg") as $filename) {

   echo "$filename size " . filesize($filename) . "\n";

   unlink($filename);

}



?>

pc AT newagelab DOT com DOT ua
08-Sep-2004 10:22


To delete files using wildcards:





<?


function delfile($str)


{


    foreach(glob($str) as $fn) {


        unlink($fn);


    }


}


?>

richard at keyms dot com
10-Feb-2003 05:39


when you have opened the file with fopen() you need to use fclose() before you can unlink them :)