PHP mkdir() Function - If Folder Exists

Question

I have a PHP Script that creates a folder based on a form. I'm wondering if there is a way to NOt create and replace that folder if it already exists?

<?php 
mkdir("QuickLinks/$_POST[contractno]");
?>

What are you trying to achieve exactly? What does your program do? — Madara's Ghost, Jul 12 '12 at 15:27
The program creates a folder based on input from a form, and then copies a template folder into the new folder. I'm wondering if there is also a way to tell the script that if the folder is already there; don't copy anything? It a in-house project, password is needed to access the web-page. — ItsJoeTurner, Jul 12 '12 at 15:29

score 16 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 12 '12 at 15:12

16

You can use is_dir:

<?php 
$path = "QuickLinks/$_POST[contractno]";
if(!is_dir($path)){
  mkdir($path);
}
?>

answered Jul 12 '12 at 15:12

Zbigniew

27,184
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score 5 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 12 '12 at 15:12

In general:

$dirname = "whatever";
if (!is_dir($dirname)) {
    mkdir($dirname);
}

In particular: be very careful when doing filesystem (or any other type of sensitive) operations that involve user input! The current example (create a directory) doesn't leave much of an open attack surface, but validating the input can never hurt.

Federkun · Answer 3 · 2012-07-12T15:45:04.203

4

Use is_dir to check if folder exists

$dir = "/my/path/to/dir";
if (!is_dir($dir)) {
    if (false === @mkdir($dir, 0777, true)) {
        throw new \RuntimeException(sprintf('Unable to create the %s directory', $dir));
    }
}

Attention to the uncontrolled input, it is very dangerous!

edited Jul 12 '12 at 15:45

answered Jul 12 '12 at 15:13

Federkun

36,084
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score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Jul 12 '12 at 15:13

2

You can try:

<?php 
    if (!is_dir("QuickLinks/$_POST[contractno]"))
        mkdir("QuickLinks/$_POST[contractno]");
?>

answered Jul 12 '12 at 15:13

cek-cek

470
8
13

This seems to have worked. Is there a way to do this for copying a folder? If the folder already exists then don't copy anything? – ItsJoeTurner Jul 12 '12 at 15:28
Yeah, this should work: ``. If there is problem with shell_exec() function, replace it with some other copying function inspired from [this](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2050859/copy-entire-contents-of-a-directory-to-another-using-php) topic. – cek-cek Jul 12 '12 at 15:37

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Jul 12 '12 at 15:12

1

you can take a look at :

http://php.net/manual/en/function.is-dir.php

answered Jul 12 '12 at 15:12

Damien Locque

1,810
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score 1 · Answer 6 · answered Jul 12 '12 at 15:13

1

Use the is_dir-function of PHP to check if there is already a directory and call the mkdir-function only if there isn't one.

answered Jul 12 '12 at 15:13

oktopus

1,739
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score 0 · Answer 7 · edited Jul 13 '12 at 04:32

0

Do some validation rules (regexp) here before using POST variable to create the directory !

if(!file_exists("QuickLinks/$_POST[contractno]"))
    mkdir("QuickLinks/$_POST[contractno]");

edited Jul 13 '12 at 04:32

Anthony

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answered Jul 12 '12 at 15:13

Benoit

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17

file_exists doesn't differentiate between files and directories, so a file with the name you are looking for will produce a false true. is_dir checks if it exists AND if it is a directory – hellsgate Jul 12 '12 at 15:14
1

@hellsgate: Which is the better approach in such cases. You can't create the directory if a file or named socket under that same name exists. So `is_dir` sounds like the more exact approach, but can lead to false negatives and additional errors. Purely fictional. But the fallback code should be invoked for existing files *and* directories. – mario Jul 12 '12 at 15:19
@mario: Good point. For this scenario, I now realise file_exists is the better option because of the reasons you list. – hellsgate Jul 12 '12 at 15:24

PHP mkdir() Function - If Folder Exists

7 Answers7