Directory Functions in PHP

Introduction

This article explains Directories in PHP; how to show or get all the information about directories and contents. For this I use the important and useful functions such as chdir(), chroot(), dir(), closedir(), getcwd(), opendir(), readdir(), rewinddir() and scandir(). I discuss them step-by-step. The directory functions are parts of the PHP core.

Syntax

chroot(directory);

Parameter	Description
Directory	Required specifies new root directory.

Example

This function basically changes the root directory of the current process and this function returns true on success otherwise returns false. This function does not work on the Windows platform since Wndows does not have equivalent functionality.

<?php

chroot("/path/to/your/chroot/");

echo getcwd();

Output

Syntax

chdir(directory);

Parameter	Description
Directory	Required. Specifies the directory to change to.

Example

This function changes the current directory.

<?php

//get current dire

echo getcwd();

echo "<br />";

//change to the file dir

chdir("gallery");

echo "<br />";

echo getcwd();

Output

Syntax

scandir(directory,sort,context);

Parameter	Description
Directory	Required; specifies the file name to scan.
sort	Specifies the sort order.
context	A set of options that can modify the behavior of the stream.

Example

This function returns the file in an array. This function returns an array on success otherwise returns false.

<?php

echo "<pre>";print_r(scandir("gallery"));

Output

Syntax

readdir(dir_stream);

Parameter	Description
Directory	Required. Specifies the directory handle to use.

Example

This function returns the entry from a directory. This function returns a filename on success otherwise returns false.

<?php

//Open gallery directory

$dir = opendir("gallery");

while (($file = readdir($dir)) !== false)

{

echo "filename: " . $file . "<br />";

}

closedir($dir);

Output

Syntax

getcwd();

Parameter	Description

Example

This function returns the current directory. This function returns the current directory on success otherwise returns false.

<?php

echo getcwd();

Output