PHP Filesystem unlink() Function

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The PHP Filesystem unlink() function is used to delete files and it can return true on success or false on failure. It is just like the UNIX unlink() function. Inside the function the $filename parameter is sent which needs to be deleted.

An E_WARNING level error will be generated in the case of failure.

Syntax

Below is the syntax of the PHP Filesystem unlink() function −

bool unlink ( string $filename [, resource $context ] )

Parameters

Below is the only required parameter of the unlink() function −

Return Value

The unlink() function returns TRUE on success and FALSE on failure.

PHP Version

The unlink() function was first introduced as part of core PHP 4 and work well with the PHP 5, PHP 7 and PHP 8.

Example

First we will show you the basic example of the PHP Filesystem unlink() function which is deleting the file provided inside the function.

<?php
   // Mention file path here
   $file = "/PhpProject/php/sample.txt";
   if(!unlink($file)) {
      echo ("Error deleting $file");
   } else {
      echo ("Deleted $file successfully.");
   }
?>

Output

Here is the outcome of the following code −

Deleted /PhpProject/php/sample.txt successfully.

Example

This is an additional PHP example code that uses the unlink() method to delete an html file after writing some content in it.

<?php
   // Mention file path here
   $filename = "/PhpProjects/test.htm";
   $fileopen = fopen($filename, 'a');
   fwrite($fileopen, '<h1>Hello world!</h1>');
   fclose($fileopen);

   unlink($filename);
   echo "The file has been deleted successfully.";
?> 

Output

This will produce the following output −

The file has been deleted successfully.

Example

Here is one more example to see the usage of unlink() function and now we will use it with conditional statement.

<?php
   // Mention file path here
   $filename = "/PhpProjects/myPage.htm";
   
   if (unlink($filename)) {
      echo "File deleted successfully.";
   } else {
      echo "ERROR. File not deleted.";
   }
?> 

Output

This will generate the below output −

File deleted successfully

Example

Now we will use file_exists() function to see if the file actually exists or not if it exists then delete or unlink it using unlink() function.

<?php
   // Mention file path here
   $filename = "/PhpProjects/myfile.txt";
   
   if(file_exists($filename)) {
      if (unlink('file.txt')) {
         echo "File deleted successfully.";
      } else {
         echo "ERROR. File not deleted.";
      }
   }else
      echo "The file does not exist.";
?> 

Output

This will lead to the following output −

File deleted successfully.

Summary

The unlink() method is a built-in function to delete or unlink the file from the directory. This function basically removes one file at a time. And it is just link the Unix C unlink() function.