php: what does . and .. mean in the output of dir->read()

Question

<?php

$d = dir('css');
echo "Handle: " . $d->handle . "<br>";
echo "Path: " . $d->path . "<br>";

while (($file = $d->read()) !== false){
  echo "filename: " . $file . "<br>";
}
$d->close();
?>

Result:

Handle: Resource id #4
Path: css
filename: .
filename: ..
filename: css
filename: img
filename: index.html
filename: js
filename: lightbox

Question:

In the result, what does . and .. mean?

possible duplicate of [Reference - What does this symbol mean in PHP?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3737139/reference-what-does-this-symbol-mean-in-php) — Kermit, Sep 04 '13 at 01:38

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 04 '13 at 01:41

5

. is the current directory and .. is one up. Most code examples have if-statements to skip over em.

Here is an example out of the PHP docs:

http://php.net/manual/en/function.readdir.php#example-2318

Even on the docs, it shows the code to just ignore.

answered Sep 04 '13 at 01:41

Dave Stein

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Are you assuming everyone knows and uses FileZilla? – Kermit Sep 04 '13 at 01:42
Removed that sentence – Dave Stein Sep 04 '13 at 01:44

Cyntech · Answer 2 · 2013-09-04T01:35:54.977

0

. is a reference to the current directory and .. is the directory one level up.

For example, when changing up directories in linux, you would use cd .. to go up one directory.

edited Sep 04 '13 at 01:35

answered Sep 04 '13 at 01:33

Cyntech

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score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Sep 04 '13 at 01:36

0

. means current directory in linux system

.. means parent directory in linux system

answered Sep 04 '13 at 01:36

TaeL

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php: what does . and .. mean in the output of dir->read()

3 Answers3