The correct way to delete all files older than 2 days in PHP

Question

Just curious

        $files = glob(cacheme_directory().\"*\");
        foreach($files as $file)
        {
            $filemtime=filemtime ($file);
                  


        

Answer 1

I reckon this is much tidier and easier to read and modify.

$expire = strtotime('-7 DAYS');

$files = glob($path . '/*');

foreach ($files as $file) {

    // Skip anything that is not a file
    if (!is_file($file)) {
        continue;
    }

    // Skip any files that have not expired
    if (filemtime($file) > $expire) {
        continue;
    }

    unlink($file);
}

Answer 2

You should add an is_file() check, because PHP normally lists . and .., as well as sub-directories that could reside in the the directory you're checking.

Also, as this answer suggests, you should replace the pre-calculated seconds with a more expressive notation.

<?php
  $files = glob(cacheme_directory()."*");
  $now   = time();

  foreach ($files as $file) {
    if (is_file($file)) {
      if ($now - filemtime($file) >= 60 * 60 * 24 * 2) { // 2 days
        unlink($file);
      }
    }
  }
?>

Alternatively you could also use the DirectoryIterator, as shown in this answer. In this simple case it doesn't really offer any advantages, but it would be OOP way.

Answer 3

Here is an example of how to do it recursively.

function remove_files_from_dir_older_than_x_seconds($dir,$seconds = 3600) {
    $files = glob(rtrim($dir, '/')."/*");
    $now   = time();
    foreach ($files as $file) {
        if (is_file($file)) {
            if ($now - filemtime($file) >= $seconds) {
                echo "removed $file<br>".PHP_EOL;
                unlink($file);
            }
        } else {
            remove_files_from_dir_older_than_x_seconds($file,$seconds);
        }
    }
}

remove_files_from_dir_older_than_x_seconds(dirname(__file__).'/cache/', (60 * 60 * 24 * 1) ); // 1 day

Answer 4

Another simplier and more modern way, using FilesystemIterator.

I'm using 'logs' directory as an example.

$fileSystemIterator = new FilesystemIterator('logs');
$now = time();
foreach ($fileSystemIterator as $file) {
    if ($now - $file->getCTime() >= 60 * 60 * 24 * 2) // 2 days 
        unlink('logs/'.$file->getFilename());
}

Main advantage is: DirectoryIterator returns virtual directories "." and ".." in a loop. But FilesystemIterator ignores them.

Answer 5

The easiest way is by using DirectoryIterator:

<?php
if (file_exists($folderName)) {
    foreach (new DirectoryIterator($folderName) as $fileInfo) {
        if ($fileInfo->isDot()) {
        continue;
        }
        if ($fileInfo->isFile() && time() - $fileInfo->getCTime() >= 2*24*60*60) {
            unlink($fileInfo->getRealPath());
        }
    }
}
?>

Answer 6

/** It deletes old files.
 *  @param string $dir Directory
 *  @param int $secs Files older than $secs seconds
 *  @param string $pattern Files matching $pattern
 */
function delete_oldfiles($dir,$secs,$pattern = "/*")
{
    $now = time();
    foreach(glob("$dir$pattern") as $f) {
      if (is_file($f) && ($now - filemtime($f) > $secs)) unlink($f);
    }
}