Moving and Copying files and directories

Copying files

copy copies the source file in the first argument to the destination in the second argument. The resolved destination needs to be in a directory that is already created.

if (copy('test.txt', 'dest.txt')) {
    echo 'File has been copied successfully';
} else {
    echo 'Failed to copy file to destination given.'
}

Copying directories, with recursion

Copying directories is pretty much similar to deleting directories, except that for files copy instead of unlink is used, while for directories, mkdir instead of rmdir is used, at the beginning instead of being at the end of the function.

function recurse_delete_dir(string $src, string $dest) : int {
    $count = 0;

    // ensure that $src and $dest end with a slash so that we can concatenate it with the filenames directly
    $src = rtrim($dest, "/\\") . "/";
    $dest = rtrim($dest, "/\\") . "/";

    // use dir() to list files
    $list = dir($src);

    // create $dest if it does not already exist
    @mkdir($dest);

    // store the next file name to $file. if $file is false, that's all -- end the loop.
    while(($file = $list->read()) !== false) {
        if($file === "." || $file === "..") continue;
        if(is_file($src . $file)) {
            copy($src . $file, $dest . $file);
            $count++;
        } elseif(is_dir($src . $file)) {
            $count += recurse_copy_dir($src . $file, $dest . $file);
        }
    }

    return $count;
}

Renaming/Moving

Renaming/Moving files and directories is much simpler. Whole directories can be moved or renamed in a single call, using the rename function.

rename("~/file.txt", "~/file.html");
rename("~/dir", "~/old_dir");
rename("~/dir/file.txt", "~/dir2/file.txt");

Found a mistake? Have a question or improvement idea? Let me know.

Table Of Contents