rmdir() question

[helz]

i checked php.net had a look at the user reviews and most of them were about how rmdir will only delete empty directories.

may i ask why this is?

[codeDV]

I think it's mainly a safety precaution. So as you don't remove a directory with files you may need. The rm command on linux will by default not delete a directory empty or not empty. It requires that you supply it an agrument to confirm you want to delete the directory. If the directory is not empty you must also spply an argument which confirms it should delete its contents; sub directories and files. You can easily create a function in PHP to clear a directory before deleting it.

function rmdir_recursive ($path) {
  if (!$roothwnd = opendir($path)) {
    echo ("Error opening directory $path during directory deletion\n");
    return false;
  }

  while ($file = readdir($roothwnd)) {
    $fpath = (substr ($path, -1) == '/')?($path . $file):($path . '/' . $file);

if (is_dir ($fpath)){
  if ($file == '..' || $file == '.') continue;
  if (!cleardir ($fpath)) return false;
} else {
  if (!@unlink ($fpath)) {
    echo ("Error deleting $fpath during directory deletion\n");
    return false;
  }
}
  }

  closedir ($roothwnd);

  if (!@rmdir ($path)) {
    echo ("Error removing directory $path during directory deletion\n");
    return false;
  }

  return true;
}

This function deletes all files and sub directories and finally the supplied directory. If it encounters a subdirectory it just calls itself again with the path of the sub directory. If there is an error deleting any file or sub directory the function will fail and return false.

[helz]

ah, is that a function that you have used and works successfully?

i got one of the site which is more simple than that, but if yours definatly works then thanks 😃

=edit==

where in the code is says:
<img src="images/smilies/frown.gif" border="0" alt="">

is it meant to be:

: (

(without the space)

[codeDV]

oops sorry. Didn't turn smilies off. I've posted the correct code below. I have used the function in the past and it works fine. I do a lot of error checking which is probably why it looks more complex. You may want to customize the error messages though because they are not valid HTML.

function rmdir_recursive ($path) { 
  if (!$roothwnd = opendir($path)) { 
    echo ("Error opening directory $path during directory deletion\n"); 
    return false; 
  } 

  while ($file = readdir($roothwnd)) { 
    $fpath = (substr ($path, -1) == '/')?($path . $file):($path . '/' . $file); 

if (is_dir ($fpath)){ 
  if ($file == '..' || $file == '.') continue; 
  if (!cleardir ($fpath)) return false; 
} else { 
  if (!@unlink ($fpath)) { 
    echo ("Error deleting $fpath during directory deletion\n"); 
    return false; 
  } 
} 
  } 

  closedir ($roothwnd); 

  if (!@rmdir ($path)) { 
    echo ("Error removing directory $path during directory deletion\n"); 
    return false; 
  } 

  return true; 
}

[helz]

apart from the ( brackets ) around the echos' its the same style of coding as mine. so thanks 😃