PHP unlink() Function

The PHP unlink() function deletes the specified file.

Syntax

unlink(filename, context)

Parameters

`filename`	`Required.` Specify the path to the file to delete.
`context`	`Optional.` Specify the context of the file handle. Context is a set of options that can modify the behavior of a stream.

Return Value

Returns true on success or false on failure.

Exceptions

Upon failure, an E_WARNING level error is thrown.

Example:

Lets assume that we have a file called test.txt in the current working directory. The example below demonstrates on using this function to delete this file.

<?php
$file = 'test.txt';

//deleting the $file if exists
if (file_exists($file)) {
  echo "$file contains: ".filesize($file)." bytes\n";
  if(unlink($file)) {
    echo "$file is successfully deleted.";
  } else {
    echo "$file can not be deleted.";
  }
} else {
  echo "$file is not found.";
}
?>

The output of the above code will be:

test.txt contains: 48 bytes
test.txt is successfully deleted.

❮ PHP Filesystem Reference