php script to delete files older than 24 hrs, deletes all files

Question

I wrote this php script to delete old files older than 24 hrs, but it deleted all the files including newer ones:

<?php
  $path = 'ftmp/';
  if ($handle = opendir($path)) {
     while (false !== ($file = readdir($handle))) {
        if ((time()-filectime($path.$file)) < 86400) {  
           if (preg_match('/\.pdf$/i', $file)) {
              unlink($path.$file);
           }
        }
     }
   }
?>

It's on a Linux system. I see my error. But why did it delete the old files too? — ChuckO, Jun 27 '10 at 02:59
possible duplicate of [How to delete files from directory based on creation date in php?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2205738/how-to-delete-files-from-directory-based-on-creation-date-in-php) — Gordon, Jan 23 '12 at 00:02
Be careful with your trailing slashes too. If `$path` doesn't have a trailing slash this code will fail. — Tyler V., Feb 28 '15 at 00:50

score 68 · Answer 1 · edited Apr 12 '17 at 08:41

<?php

/** define the directory **/
$dir = "images/temp/";

/*** cycle through all files in the directory ***/
foreach (glob($dir."*") as $file) {

/*** if file is 24 hours (86400 seconds) old then delete it ***/
if(time() - filectime($file) > 86400){
    unlink($file);
    }
}

?>

You can also specify file type by adding an extension after the * (wildcard) eg

For jpg images use: glob($dir."*.jpg")

For txt files use: glob($dir."*.txt")

For htm files use: glob($dir."*.htm")

score 34 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 27 '10 at 02:45

(time()-filectime($path.$file)) < 86400

If the current time and file's changed time are within 86400 seconds of each other, then...

 if (preg_match('/\.pdf$/i', $file)) {
     unlink($path.$file);
 }

I think that may be your problem. Change it to > or >= and it should work correctly.

score 8 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 01 '13 at 11:14

8

<?php   
$dir = getcwd()."/temp/";//dir absolute path
$interval = strtotime('-24 hours');//files older than 24hours

foreach (glob($dir."*") as $file) 
    //delete if older
    if (filemtime($file) <= $interval ) unlink($file);?>

answered Jul 01 '13 at 11:14

cfv1000

453
3
10

score 8 · Answer 4 · answered Jun 27 '10 at 02:44

8

You want > instead.
Unless you're running on Windows, you want filemtime() instead.

answered Jun 27 '10 at 02:44

Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams

776,304
153
1,341
1,358

B. Martin · Answer 5 · 2022-04-16T10:37:59.437

I tested two methods to compare the speed. Option A was repeatedly about 50% faster. I ran this on a folder with about 6000 files.

Option A

$path='cache/';
$cache_max_age=86400; # 24h
if($handle=opendir($path)){
    while($file=readdir($handle)){
        if(substr($file,-6)=='.cache'){
            $filectime=filectime($path.$file);
            if($filectime and $filectime+$cache_max_age<time()){
                unlink($path.'/'.$file);
            }
        }
    }
}

Option B

$path='cache/';
$cache_max_age= 86400; # 24h
foreach(glob($path."*.cache") as $file){
    $filectime=filectime($file);
    if($filectime and $filectime+$cache_max_age<time()){
        unlink($file);
    }
}

It also checks whether a file creation time was returned. On some systems, there are problems with returning the creation time. Therefore I wanted to make sure that it does not delete all files if the system does not return a timestamp.

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Sep 08 '16 at 04:40

working fine

$path = dirname(__FILE__);
if ($handle = opendir($path)) {
while (false !== ($file = readdir($handle))) {
$timer = 300;
$filetime = filectime($file)+$timer;
$time = time();
$count = $time-$filetime;
    if($count >= 0) {
      if (preg_match('/\.png$/i', $file)) {
        unlink($path.'/'.$file);
      }
    }
}
}

score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Sep 03 '18 at 13:10

$path = '/cache/';
// 86400 = 1day

if ($handle = opendir($path)) {
     while (false !== ($file = readdir($handle))) {
        if ( (integer)(time()-filemtime($path.$file)) > 86400 && $file !== '.' && $file !== '..') {
                unlink($path.$file);
                echo "\r\n the file deleted successfully: " . $path.$file;
        } 
     }
}

php script to delete files older than 24 hrs, deletes all files

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