Deleting all files from a folder using PHP?

Solution 1:

$files = glob('path/to/temp/*'); // get all file names
foreach($files as $file){ // iterate files
  if(is_file($file)) {
    unlink($file); // delete file
  }
}

If you want to remove 'hidden' files like .htaccess, you have to use

$files = glob('path/to/temp/{,.}*', GLOB_BRACE);

Solution 2:

If you want to delete everything from folder (including subfolders) use this combination of array_map, unlink and glob:

array_map( 'unlink', array_filter((array) glob("path/to/temp/*") ) );

This call can also handle empty directories ( thanks for the tip, @mojuba!)

Solution 3:

Here is a more modern approach using the Standard PHP Library (SPL).

$dir = "path/to/directory";
if(file_exists($dir)){
    $di = new RecursiveDirectoryIterator($dir, FilesystemIterator::SKIP_DOTS);
    $ri = new RecursiveIteratorIterator($di, RecursiveIteratorIterator::CHILD_FIRST);
    foreach ( $ri as $file ) {
        $file->isDir() ?  rmdir($file) : unlink($file);
    }
}

Solution 4:

foreach (new DirectoryIterator('/path/to/directory') as $fileInfo) {
    if(!$fileInfo->isDot()) {
        unlink($fileInfo->getPathname());
    }
}