Will thus param work

Talguy

I was wonder if this parameter will work for this function

I'm trying to create a delete directory function that does not use and sql, straight file system. I want to know if this works

function delete(scandir($somePath))
{
     //stuff
}
delete('some path');

when I enter some path into the function parameter will it scan the directory or not. I want to know if this works because this the only way that I can see to delete a directory recursively if. recursive seems like teh best solution to me for this task if I do not know how many sub folder levels there are.

zabmilenko

Nope. You can't use a function like that.

About the only function call you can get into a prototype is array() like so:

function do_something($list_of_stuff = array())
{
    // Some Stuff
}

Copied from http://php.net/rmdir

function removeDir($path)
{
   $path.="*";

   foreach(glob($path) as $file)
   {
      if( is_file($file) === true )
      {
         unlink($file);
      }
      elseif( is_dir($file) === true )
      {
         removeDir($file);
      }
   }
}

Talguy

how can I detect if the directory is empty of not

zabmilenko

Perhaps like this?

   echo count(glob(dirname($path) . '/*'));

Please take a few moments to peruse the php file and directory functions. It will save you some time AND you may find new tricks that you like. The functions are listed at http://us3.php.net/manual/en/ref.filesystem.php

Talguy

I have reviewed that area and couldn't find anything

zabmilenko

Funny. That's where I copied my two code examples from...

Talguy

sorry I really didn't understand what it does and I still don't. I know what I want to do and I am having a hard time coding it with my limited php & programming experience (I'm just a hobbist). I'm going to take a stab at what that glob stuff means and here it is: it counts the number of files that is in the directory where /* means any extension. What would it return if it came across another directory. would it just return something like 'name_of_dir/'. I want to make a directory deleter that crawls to through a directory tree from the orignal directory that I declare. The directory tree can be infinite.

zabmilenko

According to php, a directory is a file (at first). You use the functions is_dir() and is_file() to determine what it actually is. Glob just returns the contents.

Talguy

so scandir would do the same thing as glob

zabmilenko

scandir also returns .. and . which could lead to issues. glob doesn't. scandir also sorts the results, so it's a bit slower. glob is also more scalable.

In the end, it's only a matter of preference.

Talguy

ok thanks

Talguy

ok so after coding for a while here is what I have so far with some errors I'm going to ask about

public function deleteDir2($limitPath='', $path = '')
{
  if($path == $limitPath && count(scandir($limitPath)) < 3) {
    rmdir($limitPath);
    return TRUE;
  }
  else {
    if(!is_dir($limitPath)) {
      $this->__errors[$limitPath] = $limitPath.' not a directory.';
      return FALSE;
    }
    else {
      if($path == '')
        $path = $limitPath;
	echo '<br/>'.$path.'<br/>';
	//if(!is_writable($path)) {
	//$this->__errors[$path] = $path.' Not writable.';
	//return FALSE;
	//}
	//else {
	$files = scandir($path);
	print_r($files);
	if(count($files) < 3) {
	  rmdir($path);
        }
	else {
	  foreach($files as $item) {
	    if($item == '.' || $item == '..') {
	      echo '<br/>continued';
	      continue;
	    }
	    elseif(is_file($item)) {
	      echo '<br/>Deleted '.$item;
	      unlink($item);
	    }
	    elseif(is_dir($item)) {
	      echo '<br/>'.$item.' is directory';
	      deleteDir2($limitPath, $path.'/'.$item);
	    }
	  }
	  echo '<br/>outside loop';
	  $pos = strpos($path, '/');
	  echo '<br/>'.$pos;
	  if($pos != (strlen($path)-1)) {
	    $oldPath = $path;
	    $newPath = '';
	    for($i=0; $i < ($pos); $i++){
	      $newPath .= $oldPath[$i];
	      echo '<br/>'.$newPath;
	    }
	    echo '<br/>'.$newPath;
	  }
	  $deleteDir2($limitPath, $newPath); // this is line 124
        }
        //}
    }
  }  

}

here is my out put whe I run the script from the echo's that I placed in it for debugging.

photos/test
Array ( [0] => . [1] => .. [2] => untitled [3] => untitled.php [4] => untitled1.php [5] => untitled2.php )
continued
continued
outside loop
6
p
ph
pho
phot
photo
photos
photos
Fatal error: Function name must be a string in C:\wamp\www\main\phpGallery\class\filemanager.class.php on line 124

the problems that I am having is
[1] - In the foreach loop where I am checking for . and .. and then call continue I drop out of the loop
[2] - I'm inputing the new path into the function call and get an error asying that I am not passing in a string when clearly I am from teh out put

can someone help me or even tell me that me script works some what or is a complete disaster.

                           Thanks a lot.

Talguy

I forgot to add that this class is inside a class

Talguy

Ok I know that I am spamming my own post but thats bc I need help. The above code that I posted is old code and I got my infinite recursive directory and file deleter to work with a couple of small errors which I can fix later. I did run into a major problem after I ran it on the same name folder a while. The error is that the script changed the permissions of that folder and it's sub-folder but not the files that are inside of teh all the folders. So now I can not delete the folders from my computer. I am running windows xp home edition and I know what you all are thinking why is he running php on a windows machine. It's because that is what I use all the time and I just don't feel like changing back and forth between OS (I do like linux and I have used it before for a couple of classes).

Could anybody help me fix this error so that I can get these test folders off my computer.