PHP unlink() Function | Delete a File

The PHP unlink() function is used when we need to delete/remove a file. For example:

<?php
   if(unlink("fresherearth.txt"))
      echo "The file deleted successfully";
   else
      echo "Unable to delete the file";
?>

The output of above PHP example, is:

And the file named fresherearth.txt that was available in the current directory has been deleted, after executing the above PHP code.

PHP unlink() Function Syntax

The syntax of unlink() function in PHP, is:

unlink(file, context)

The second or context parameter is optional, used to define the context of file handler.

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

PHP unlink() Function Example

Before deleting any file using PHP script. Let me show you the snapshot of the current directory, in my case:

Now here is the PHP script to delete a file named myfile.txt:

<?php
   $file = "myfile.txt";
   echo "<p>Deleting the file, <b>$file</b>.....</p>";
   if(unlink($file))
      echo "<p>The file, <b>$file</b> deleted successfully.</p>";
   else
      echo "<p>Unable to delete the file, <b>$file</b></p>";
?>

The output of above PHP example after execution, is:

Following is the new snapshot of the same directory, after executing the above PHP script of deleting a file named myfile.txt:

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