Moving up a directory

Question

I'm creating a directory in a php script, moving into that directory and doing some stuff. This part works fine.

Now, I want to move out of this directory and delete it. Any pointers on how to do this?

I have tried moving up 1 level, but it doesnt work

chdir("../");
chdir("..")
system("cd ..");

none of the above have any effect on the present working directory

What do you mean "moving into that directory"? Have you verified that? Also, there's no need to move into any directory (you can simply use longer paths). — Jon, Apr 12 '11 at 14:16
@Jon Yes, I am able to move into the directory (verified with getcwd()) — Akash, Apr 12 '11 at 14:18
@Tomalak It worked now. Had some other errors in the script because of which this command didnt execute — Akash, Apr 12 '11 at 14:18

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 12 '11 at 14:20

4

You could do something like this to be more explicit about your intended paths:

$cwd = getcwd(); // remember the current path
chdir(<your target path>);
chdir($cwd); // go back to the inital working directory

answered Apr 12 '11 at 14:20

initall

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 12 '11 at 14:17

Don't chdir into that directory once you create it, modify files from outside it, and then remove it.

i.e. instead of doing something like:

mkdir("dir");
chdir("dir");
write_file("one");
write_file("two");

structure your code as:

mkdir("dir");
write_file("dir/one");
write_file("dir/two");

You then don't need to walk the directory hierarchy.

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 12 '11 at 14:17

1

I would advise against actually changing dir; simply hold the path of interest and operate upon it (and the files within it) directly.

That said, chdir ('../'); should work.

answered Apr 12 '11 at 14:17

Steve Mayne

score -1 · Answer 4 · answered Apr 12 '11 at 14:20

-1

you can create a directory on the upper level like this

<?
   mkdir('../newdir/', 0755);
?>

without move in it

answered Apr 12 '11 at 14:20

Teneff

4 Answers4