PHP/file/name

PHP filename functionality folders/directories/paths

PHP File fx() glob meta I/O naming

About

PHP's functionality for managing and accessing file/folder names/paths is a mix of classes and standalone functions.

Native Functions

General information:

• «getcwd()»: return the path to the current working directory
  • This may not be the same as the directory the code is in!
  • To get the code's current directory, use the «__DIR__» magic constant.

Any of the following can be used to get a directory listing:

• «dir()» accepts a filepath to an existing folder and returns a «Directory» object, which can be iterated through to get the listing.
  • Sorting must be done after retrieving all the files.
  • It seems likely (I haven't tested this) that the iteration process is atomic by file, i.e. it will return from listing one file even if the directory is damaged and the next one cannot be read.
• «glob()»: see glob
• «fnmatch()» accepts a filename and a glob-mask, and tells whether the filename fits the mask
• «scandir()» accepts a filepath to an existing folder and returns an array of files found in the given folder. By default, they are sorted alphabetically.

The following functions can parse a filespec in various ways:

• «basename()» returns the last element of a filespec, with some options.
• «dirname()» returns the filepath to the given file/folder's parent folder.
• «pathinfo()» breaks a filespec down into multiple components.
  • There doesn't seem to be any corresponding function for rebuilding a filespec from an array.
• «realpath()» returns a de-contextualized canonical absolute filespec.

Reference

• File System Related Extensions: also includes some file-related extensions
  • Directories extension
  • Directory class
    • «Directory» objects are created with the dir() method.
  • Filesystem extension
    • This is where all the most common PHP file[sys]-related functions are kept.

Code Snippets

This will get a directory of the folder above the code's current working directory:

$arDir = scandir('../');
echo "Directory:<ul>";
foreach ($arDir as $idx => $fn) {
    echo "<li>$fn</li>\n";
}
echo "</ul>";