Deletes a file
  • « umask
  •  
  • Inotify »
    • PHP Manual
    • Filesystem Functions
    • Deletes a file

    unlink

    (PHP 4, PHP 5, PHP 7, PHP 8)

    unlink — Deletes a file

    Description

    unlink(string $filename, ?resource $context = null): bool

    Deletes filename. Similar to the Unix C unlink() function. An E_WARNING level error will be generated on failure.

    Parameters

    filename

    Path to the file.

    If the file is a symlink, the symlink will be deleted. On Windows, to delete a symlink to a directory, rmdir() has to be used instead.

    context

    A context stream resource.

    Return Values

    Returns true on success or false on failure.

    Changelog

    Version Description
    7.3.0 On Windows, it is now possible to unlink() files with handles in use, while formerly that would fail. However, it is still not possible to re-create the unlinked file, until all handles to it have been closed.

    Examples

    Example #1 Basic unlink() usage

    <?php
    $fh
    = fopen('test.html', 'a');
    fwrite($fh, '<h1>Hello world!</h1>');
    fclose($fh);

    unlink('test.html');
    ?>

    See Also

    • rmdir() - Removes directory