PHP 7.0.6 Released

The RecursiveDirectoryIterator class

(PHP 5, PHP 7)

Introduction

The RecursiveDirectoryIterator provides an interface for iterating recursively over filesystem directories.

Class synopsis

RecursiveDirectoryIterator extends FilesystemIterator implements SeekableIterator , RecursiveIterator {
/* Methods */
public __construct ( string $path [, int $flags = FilesystemIterator::KEY_AS_PATHNAME | FilesystemIterator::CURRENT_AS_FILEINFO ] )
public mixed getChildren ( void )
public string getSubPath ( void )
public string getSubPathname ( void )
public bool hasChildren ([ bool $allow_links = false ] )
public string key ( void )
public void next ( void )
public void rewind ( void )
/* Inherits */
public FilesystemIterator::__construct ( string $path [, int $flags = FilesystemIterator::KEY_AS_PATHNAME | FilesystemIterator::CURRENT_AS_FILEINFO | FilesystemIterator::SKIP_DOTS ] )
public mixed FilesystemIterator::current ( void )
public int FilesystemIterator::getFlags ( void )
public string FilesystemIterator::key ( void )
public void FilesystemIterator::next ( void )
public void FilesystemIterator::rewind ( void )
public void FilesystemIterator::setFlags ([ int $flags ] )
}

Changelog

Version Description
5.3.0 The FilesystemIterator was introduced as the parent class. Previously, the parent was the DirectoryIterator.
5.3.0 Implements SeekableIterator.
5.2.11, 5.3.1 Added RecursiveDirectoryIterator::FOLLOW_SYMLINKS

Table of Contents

User Contributed Notes

Thriault
6 years ago
If you would like to get, say, all the *.php files in your project folder, recursively, you could use the following:

<?php

$Directory
= new RecursiveDirectoryIterator('path/to/project/');
$Iterator = new RecursiveIteratorIterator($Directory);
$Regex = new RegexIterator($Iterator, '/^.+\.php$/i', RecursiveRegexIterator::GET_MATCH);

?>

$Regex will contain a single index array for each PHP file.
alvaro at demogracia dot com
7 years ago
Usage example:

<?php

$path
= realpath('/etc');

$objects = new RecursiveIteratorIterator(new RecursiveDirectoryIterator($path), RecursiveIteratorIterator::SELF_FIRST);
foreach(
$objects as $name => $object){
    echo
"$name\n";
}

?>

This prints a list of all files and directories under $path (including $path ifself). If you want to omit directories, remove the RecursiveIteratorIterator::SELF_FIRST part.
antennen
5 years ago
If you use RecursiveDirectoryIterator with RecursiveIteratorIterator and run into UnexpectedValueException you may use this little hack to ignore those directories, such as lost+found on linux.

<?php
class IgnorantRecursiveDirectoryIterator extends RecursiveDirectoryIterator {
    function
getChildren() {
        try {
            return new
IgnorantRecursiveDirectoryIterator($this->getPathname());
        } catch(
UnexpectedValueException $e) {
            return new
RecursiveArrayIterator(array());
        }
    }
}
?>

Use just like the normal RecursiveDirectoryIterator.
megar
6 years ago
Usage example:
To see all the files, and count the space usage:

<?php
$ite
=new RecursiveDirectoryIterator("/path/");

$bytestotal=0;
$nbfiles=0;
foreach (new
RecursiveIteratorIterator($ite) as $filename=>$cur) {
   
$filesize=$cur->getSize();
   
$bytestotal+=$filesize;
   
$nbfiles++;
    echo
"$filename => $filesize\n";
}

$bytestotal=number_format($bytestotal);
echo
"Total: $nbfiles files, $bytestotal bytes\n";
?>
flobee
1 year ago
In this doc page i see things for to hide hidden files  (also for opendir() or readdir() .... this should be mentiond all there
<?php
// not hidden but on most OS systems Win, *nix, OSX..
if ($file == '.' || $file == '..') {
    
// "." current dir info,
     // ".." dir above info,
         
continue;
?>
or
<?php
if $name[0] === '.' // NOT OK FOLKS
?>
Think:
"... and then came Polly.avi" is the title of the Movi. What do you do then?

Windows does it different with hidden files than unix based systems.

For unix based systems  something like this should work:
<?php
if (preg_match('/^(\.\w+|\.$|\.\.$)/i', $location)) {
/* is hidden:
    .
    ..
    .dir
    .file
*/
}
// must be ok: "..some thing", "... some thing"
?>

I know you do it (if $name[0] === '.' ) because it is much faster. But it is NOT correct and some day you miss things like me today :-)
sun
2 years ago
Since I continue to run into implementations across the net that are unintentionally running into this trap — beware:

RecursiveDirectoryIterator recurses without limitations into the full filesystem tree.

Do NOT do the following, unless you intentionally want to infinitely recurse without limitations:

<?php
$directory
= new \RecursiveDirectoryIterator($path);
$iterator = new \RecursiveIteratorIterator($directory);
$files = array();
foreach (
$iterator as $info) {
  if (...
custom conditions...) {
   
$files[] = $info->getPathname();
  }
}
?>

1. RecursiveDirectoryIterator is just a RecursiveIterator that recurses into its children, until no more children are found.

2. The instantiation of RecursiveIteratorIterator causes RecursiveDirectoryIterator to *immediately* recurse infinitely into the entire filesystem tree (starting from the given base path).

3. Unnecessary filesystem recursion is slow.  In 90% of all cases, this is not what you want.

Remember this simple rule of thumb:

→ A RecursiveDirectoryIterator must be FILTERED or you have a solid reason for why it shouldn't.

On PHP <5.4, implement the following - your custom conditions move into a proper filter:

<?php
$directory
= new \RecursiveDirectoryIterator($path, \FilesystemIterator::FOLLOW_SYMLINKS);
$filter = new MyRecursiveFilterIterator($directory);
$iterator = new \RecursiveIteratorIterator($filter);
$files = array();
foreach (
$iterator as $info) {
 
$files[] = $info->getPathname();
}

class
MyRecursiveFilterIterator extends \RecursiveFilterIterator {

  public function
accept() {
   
$filename = $this->current()->getFilename();
   
// Skip hidden files and directories.
   
if ($name[0] === '.') {
      return
FALSE;
    }
    if (
$this->isDir()) {
     
// Only recurse into intended subdirectories.
     
return $name === 'wanted_dirname';
    }
    else {
     
// Only consume files of interest.
     
return strpos($name, 'wanted_filename') === 0;
    }
  }

}
?>

On PHP 5.4+, PHP core addressed the slightly cumbersome issue of having to create an entirely new class and you can leverage the new RecursiveCallbackFilterIterator instead:

<?php
$directory
= new \RecursiveDirectoryIterator($path, \FilesystemIterator::FOLLOW_SYMLINKS);
$filter = new \RecursiveCallbackFilterIterator($directory, function ($current, $key, $iterator) {
 
// Skip hidden files and directories.
 
if ($current->getFilename()[0] === '.') {
    return
FALSE;
  }
  if (
$current->isDir()) {
   
// Only recurse into intended subdirectories.
   
return $current->getFilename() === 'wanted_dirname';
  }
  else {
   
// Only consume files of interest.
   
return strpos($current->getFilename(), 'wanted_filename') === 0;
  }
});
$iterator = new \RecursiveIteratorIterator($filter);
$files = array();
foreach (
$iterator as $info) {
 
$files[] = $info->getPathname();
}
?>

Have fun!
Josh Heidenreich
4 years ago
The returned object is an iterator of SplFileInfo objects.
catinahat at cool dot fr dot nf
3 years ago
If you need to convert a nested directory tree into a multidimensional array, use this code:

<?php
$ritit
= new RecursiveIteratorIterator(new RecursiveDirectoryIterator($startpath), RecursiveIteratorIterator::CHILD_FIRST);
$r = array();
foreach (
$ritit as $splFileInfo) {
  
$path = $splFileInfo->isDir()
         ? array(
$splFileInfo->getFilename() => array())
         : array(
$splFileInfo->getFilename());

   for (
$depth = $ritit->getDepth() - 1; $depth >= 0; $depth--) {
      
$path = array($ritit->getSubIterator($depth)->current()->getFilename() => $path);
   }
  
$r = array_merge_recursive($r, $path);
}

print_r($r);
?>
dblanchard1 at bbox dot fr
2 years ago
If you want to copy all files recursively from a source directory to some destination  :

    $directory = new RecursiveDirectoryIterator("./source_path/");

    foreach (new RecursiveIteratorIterator($directory) as $filename=>$current) {
           
            $src = $current->getPathName();
            $dest = "./destination_path/" . $current->getFileName();
           
            echo "copy " .  $src . " => " . $dest  . "\n";
           
            copy($src, $dest);
     }

I hope it can help someone because when I looked for this solution I had to transform another example to get it.
alexandrebr at gmail dot com
3 months ago
I tried to use RecursiveDirectoryIterator to dump all files (and theirs properties, such as size/is_link/is_dir/mtime/perms/owner/group) from a large directory (~400.000 files), filtering some specific wanted files/folders.

Using RecursiveDirectoryIterator and SplFileInfo, dump was taking about 50 seconds to perform, but it was working.

However, to improve performance, I decided to make another version of the same script, using only direct file functions, such as "readdir", "filesize", "filemtime", etc.., and adding recursivity myself (if(is_dir($path)) doRecursivity($path);

After running it, script went from ~50s to only ~20s to complete (On Linux CentOS 7, SSD 300IPs).

Strangely, on Windows 7, Sata3 (with exactly same files [mirrored]) the time went from ~63s to ~57s.

I believe that this payload is due to the OO approach of SPL, which runs lots of unnecessary extra code to perform the same tasks with more reliability, while direct file funcions are more like alias to C corresponding functions, and thereover, must faster.

So, if you're dealing with a large amount of files, using RecursiveDirectoryIterator is probably not the way to go.
Edward Rudd
2 years ago
(related to the post about exceptions in getChildren().

instead of subclassing you can simply use the CATCH_GET_CHILD flag for RecursiveIteratorIterator

new RecursiveIteratorIterator($diriter, RecursiveIteratorIterator::CATCH_GET_CHILD);
rockerBOO
2 years ago
When looping through the RecursiveDirectoryIterator , the results use  SplFileInfo.
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