Delete file using PHP code : unlink()

To delete a file or files using PHP code you can use the unlink() method.

Syntax : bool unlink ( string $fileName [, resource $context ] )

It returns a boolean TRUE if the file is deleted successfully and FALSE if it failed to delete it. The resource part is option, it was added in PHP version 5.

<?php 

    $fileName = "some-file.txt";

    $filePath = "file/path/if/any/";

     //delete the file
    unlink($fileName.$filePath);


?>

<?php 

    $filePath = "file/path/if/any/";

   foreach (glob($filePath."*.*")) as $fileName) {
     //*.txt is a wild card will delete all text files contained in the directory location specified.
     unlink($fileName");
     echo $fileName." was deleted!";
 }


?>

<?php 

    $filePath = "file/path/if/any/";
    
    foreach (glob($filePath."*.*")) as $fileName) {
     //*.* is a wildcard that will delete all files contained in the directory location specified.
    unlink($fileName);
    echo $fileName." was deleted!";
 }


?>

<?php 

   $filePath = "file/path/if/any/";
   $wildcard = "*.png"

   //will delete all png files
   array_map( "unlink", glob( $filePath.$wildcard ));
?>

unlink was added to PHP in version 4, hence it will not work with previous versions.

If you get a warning like Warning: unlink(uploaded_images/pdf.png): Permission denied in /Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/c2c/temp.php on line 7 , then its because you do not have permissions to either

access this file or the directory.