PHP: Copy, Rename or Move a File

17 Comments / PHP Tips & Tutorials / By /

PHP can only copy, rename or move files that are of the same owner with who is running the PHP script. After making sure of this, you can proceed to:

Copy a file to another place in PHP:

$old = '/tmp/yesterday.txt';
$new = '/tmp/today.txt';
copy($old, $new) or die("Unable to copy $old to $new.");

Rename a file and give it a new name:

$old = '/tmp/today.txt';
$new = '/tmp/tomorrow.txt';
rename($old, $new) or die("Unable to rename $old to $new.");

Move a file to a new place in PHP:

if (copy("/tmp/code.c","/usr/local/src/code.c")) {
  unlink("/tmp/code.c");
}

Apparently you must make sure the copying is successful before doing the deletion.

Of course you can always execute a native Linux shell command such as ‘cp’ and ‘mv’ to do the dirty work for you instead of resorting to a PHP function. In this situation, you need the php function exec() to execute an external command.

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17 thoughts on “PHP: Copy, Rename or Move a File”

  1. christian

    Hi, maybe you could help me with a problem i’m having, i need ti rename a file, with a specific name, how can i create a function that let do the following, if the file exist, rename the file with a new name like, document.php, document_2.php, document_3.php, document_4.php. i need to create a function to do that, when it renames a file rename it with the next number.

    thank you

    1. Yas

      Two and half years overdue but maybe it can help someone else. Amazing that I was just using this code. Maybe there’s a better way but I’ve used something similar so here’s a function to achieve that.

      $file = “/files/docs/document.php”;
      $file = rename_existing($file);

      returns full path with /document_1.php if it exists, or /document_2.php if document_1.php exists.
      Returns same filename if file doesn’t exist, Simple really

      //add _# to file name if exists
      function rename_existing($file){
      $ext = strtolower(end(explode(“.”, basename( $file ))));
      $filename = basename($file, “.$ext”)
      $dir = str_replace(“$filename.$ext”, “”, $file);

      if(file_exists($dir . “$filename.$ext”)){
      for ($i = 1; ; $i++) { //I don’t know why I used for instead of while
      $new_name = $dir . $filename . ‘_’ . $i . $ext;
      if (!file_exists($new_name)) {
      return $new_name;
      break;
      }
      }
      }
      else{ return $file; }
      }

      Sorry, it’s untested but I’m sure it can be fixed or improved easily

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  6. popo

    You can easy move files with rename: rename(“/tmp/code.c”,”/usr/local/src/code.c”)

  9. Vahan

    Please go and read php documentation for “rename” . What are you doing.
    Look here.
    $file_c = “files/file_c.txt” ;
    rename($file_c,”/userfiles/file_b.txt”); // this will move the file !!!!.
    // why to copy and then unlink .

    What are you doing people , read documentation then post any posts.
    Php programmers have problems with this , somebody thinks that he knows something and he starts publishing wrong information .

  10. Qtronik Webmaster

    You are freacking right ! We should only read the more secure way is to do that…
    Is it not secure to delete after a copy?
    Rename function do this in background anyway… is it good to decompose steps to know exactly what problem ocur ?

    A complete document should be developed on this function… 😉

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  12. SambaCats

    Don’t forget to use $_SERVER[‘DOCUMENT_ROOT’]:

    for instance:

    unlink($_SERVER[‘DOCUMENT_ROOT’].”/tmp/code.c”);

    and so on with all the others. Otherwise it will still not work. Using only “/tmp/code.c” is what you do only when calling upon the filename with the attribute href=”…” or src=”..” in html elements like <a>, and or in the css background-image: url (“…”). The above examples of both the author and commentators are far too simplistic for a beginner to get it right, but they do have some general usefulness as a reminder if you are advanced enough in PHP and capable of editing them to your needs. And you should especially test everything thoroughly before ever posting a routine. Alas, this is usually not bothered to be done by most know-it-all posters. It’s a pitty that most posts are either incomplete or extremely lazy, buggy or downright faulty and never tested by their authors.

  13. Sangna

    Hi,
    i m facing errors like below while using rename function().

    here is my code:

    output/errors:
    Warning: rename(/learn/sangna/tmp_file.txt,/learn/sangna/php/my_file.txt) [function.rename]: No such file or directory in D:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Apache2.2\htdocs\learn\sangna\rename.php on line 4

  14. Sangna

    $old = “/learn/sangna/tmp_file.txt”;
    $new = “/learn/sangna/php/my_file.txt”;
    rename($old, $new) or die(“Unable to rename $old to $new.”);

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