The filesystem functions allow you to access and manipulate the filesystem.
The filesystem functions are part of the PHP core. There is no installation needed to use these functions.
When specifying a path on Unix platforms, a forward slash (/) is used as directory separator.
On Windows platforms, both forward slash (/) and backslash (\) can be used.
The behavior of the filesystem functions is affected by settings in php.ini.
| Name | Default | Description | Changeable |
|---|---|---|---|
| allow_url_fopen | "1" | Allows fopen()-type functions to work with URLs | PHP_INI_SYSTEM |
| allow_url_include | "0" | (available since PHP 5.2) | PHP_INI_SYSTEM |
| user_agent | NULL | Defines the user agent for PHP to send (available since PHP 4.3) | PHP_INI_ALL |
| default_socket_timeout | "60" | Sets the default timeout, in seconds, for socket based streams (available since PHP 4.3) | PHP_INI_ALL |
| from | "" | Defines the email address to be used on unauthenticated FTP connections and in the From header for HTTP connections when using ftp and http wrappers | PHP_INI_ALL |
| auto_detect_line_endings | "0" | When set to "1", PHP will examine the data read by fgets() and file() to see if it is using Unix, MS-Dos or Mac line-ending characters (available since PHP 4.3) | PHP_INI_ALL |
| sys_temp_dir | "" | (available since PHP 5.5) | PHP_INI_SYSTEM |
| Function | Description |
|---|---|
| basename() | Returns the filename component of a path |
| chgrp() | Changes the file group |
| chmod() | Changes the file mode |
| chown() | Changes the file owner |
| clearstatcache() | Clears the file status cache |
| copy() | Copies a file |
| delete() | See unlink() |
| dirname() | Returns the directory name component of a path |
| disk_free_space() | Returns the free space of a filesystem or disk |
| disk_total_space() | Returns the total size of a filesystem or disk |
| diskfreespace() | Alias of disk_free_space() |
| fclose() | Closes an open file |
| feof() | Checks if the "end-of-file" (EOF) has been reached for an open file |
| fflush() | Flushes buffered output to an open file |
| fgetc() | Returns a single character from an open file |
| fgetcsv() | Returns a line from an open CSV file |
| fgets() | Returns a line from an open file |
| fgetss() | Deprecated from PHP 7.3. Returns a line from an open file - stripped from HTML and PHP tags |
| file() | Reads a file into an array |
| file_exists() | Checks whether or not a file or directory exists |
| file_get_contents() | Reads a file into a string |
| file_put_contents() | Writes data to a file |
| fileatime() | Returns the last access time of a file |
| filectime() | Returns the last change time of a file |
| filegroup() | Returns the group ID of a file |
| fileinode() | Returns the inode number of a file |
| filemtime() | Returns the last modification time of a file |
| fileowner() | Returns the user ID (owner) of a file |
| fileperms() | Returns the file's permissions |
| filesize() | Returns the file size |
| filetype() | Returns the file type |
| flock() | Locks or releases a file |
| fnmatch() | Matches a filename or string against a specified pattern |
| fopen() | Opens a file or URL |
| fpassthru() | Reads from the current position in a file - until EOF, and writes the result to the output buffer |
| fputcsv() | Formats a line as CSV and writes it to an open file |
| fputs() | Alias of fwrite() |
| fread() | Reads from an open file (binary-safe) |
| fscanf() | Parses input from an open file according to a specified format |
| fseek() | Seeks in an open file |
| fstat() | Returns information about an open file |
| ftell() | Returns the current position in an open file |
| ftruncate() | Truncates an open file to a specified length |
| fwrite() | Writes to an open file (binary-safe) |
| glob() | Returns an array of filenames / directories matching a specified pattern |
| is_dir() | Checks whether a file is a directory |
| is_executable() | Checks whether a file is executable |
| is_file() | Checks whether a file is a regular file |
| is_link() | Checks whether a file is a link |
| is_readable() | Checks whether a file is readable |
| is_uploaded_file() | Checks whether a file was uploaded via HTTP POST |
| is_writable() | Checks whether a file is writable |
| is_writeable() | Alias of is_writable() |
| lchgrp() | Changes the group ownership of a symbolic link |
| lchown() | Changes the user ownership of a symbolic link |
| link() | Creates a hard link |
| linkinfo() | Returns information about a hard link |
| lstat() | Returns information about a file or symbolic link |
| mkdir() | Creates a directory |
| move_uploaded_file() | Moves an uploaded file to a new location |
| parse_ini_file() | Parses a configuration file |
| parse_ini_string() | Parses a configuration string |
| pathinfo() | Returns information about a file path |
| pclose() | Closes a pipe opened by popen() |
| popen() | Opens a pipe |
| readfile() | Reads a file and writes it to the output buffer |
| readlink() | Returns the target of a symbolic link |
| realpath() | Returns the absolute pathname |
| realpath_cache_get() | Returns realpath cache entries |
| realpath_cache_size() | Returns realpath cache size |
| rename() | Renames a file or directory |
| rewind() | Rewinds a file pointer |
| rmdir() | Removes an empty directory |
| set_file_buffer() | Alias of stream_set_write_buffer(). Sets the buffer size for write operations on the given file |
| stat() | Returns information about a file |
| symlink() | Creates a symbolic link |
| tempnam() | Creates a unique temporary file |
| tmpfile() | Creates a unique temporary file |
| touch() | Sets access and modification time of a file |
| umask() | Changes file permissions for files |
| unlink() | Deletes a file |