glob

(PHP 4 >= 4.3.0, PHP 5, PHP 7)

glob寻找与模式匹配的文件路径

说明

array glob ( string $pattern [, int $flags = 0 ] )

glob() 函数依照 libc glob() 函数使用的规则寻找所有与 pattern 匹配的文件路径,类似于一般 shells 所用的规则一样。不进行缩写扩展或参数替代。

参数

pattern

The pattern. No tilde expansion or parameter substitution is done.

flags

有效标记有:

  • GLOB_MARK - 在每个返回的项目中加一个斜线
  • GLOB_NOSORT - 按照文件在目录中出现的原始顺序返回(不排序)
  • GLOB_NOCHECK - 如果没有文件匹配则返回用于搜索的模式
  • GLOB_NOESCAPE - 反斜线不转义元字符
  • GLOB_BRACE - 扩充 {a,b,c} 来匹配 'a','b' 或 'c'
  • GLOB_ONLYDIR - 仅返回与模式匹配的目录项
  • GLOB_ERR - 停止并读取错误信息(比如说不可读的目录),默认的情况下忽略所有错误

返回值

返回一个包含有匹配文件/目录的数组。如果出错返回 FALSE

Note:

On some systems it is impossible to distinguish between empty match and an error.

更新日志

版本 说明
5.1.0 GLOB_ERR was added
4.3.3 GLOB_ONLYDIR 在 Windows 或者其它不使用 GNU C 库的系统上开始可用。

范例

Example #1 怎样用 glob() 方便地替代 opendir() 和相关函数

<?php
foreach (glob("*.txt") as $filename) {
    echo 
"$filename size " filesize($filename) . "\n";
}
?>

以上例程的输出类似于:

funclist.txt size 44686
funcsummary.txt size 267625
quickref.txt size 137820

注释

Note: 此函数不能作用于远程文件,被检查的文件必须是可通过服务器的文件系统访问的。

Note: 此函数在一些系统上还不能工作(例如一些旧的 Sun OS)。

Note: GLOB_BRACE 在一些非 GNU 系统上无效,比如 Solaris。

参见

User Contributed Notes

joseph at deforay dot com 11-Nov-2017 03:04
how to get the files & directories which have names in Init Caps?
I have files and directories which have lower & upper case names, How can I get them using glob?
bounlu at gmail dot com 30-Oct-2017 06:24
Please also add "GLOB_NATSORT" flag for natural sort support.
simon at paragi dot dk 03-Jun-2016 04:31
This is a simple and versatile function that returns an array tree of files, matching wildcards:

<?php
// List files in tree, matching wildcards * and ?
function tree($path){
  static
$match;

 
// Find the real directory part of the path, and set the match parameter
 
$last=strrpos($path,"/");
  if(!
is_dir($path)){
   
$match=substr($path,$last);
    while(!
is_dir($path=substr($path,0,$last)) && $last!==false)
     
$last=strrpos($path,"/",-1);
  }
  if(empty(
$match)) $match="/*";
  if(!
$path=realpath($path)) return;

 
// List files
 
foreach(glob($path.$match) as $file){
   
$list[]=substr($file,strrpos($file,"/")+1);
  } 

 
// Process sub directories
 
foreach(glob("$path/*", GLOB_ONLYDIR) as $dir){
   
$list[substr($dir,strrpos($dir,"/",-1)+1)]=tree($dir);
  }
 
  return @
$list;
}
?>
sebastian dot wasser at gmail dot com 23-Apr-2016 08:50
I created a rglob function to support a '/**/' wildcard. You can even set the order to post-order or pre-order traversal.

<?php

function rglob ($pattern, $flags = 0, $traversePostOrder = false) {
   
// Keep away the hassles of the rest if we don't use the wildcard anyway
   
if (strpos($pattern, '/**/') === false) {
        return
glob($pattern, $flags);
    }

   
$patternParts = explode('/**/', $pattern);

   
// Get sub dirs
   
$dirs = glob(array_shift($patternParts) . '/*', GLOB_ONLYDIR | GLOB_NOSORT);

   
// Get files for current dir
   
$files = glob($pattern, $flags);

    foreach (
$dirs as $dir) {
       
$subDirContent = rglob($dir . '/**/' . implode('/**/', $patternParts), $flags, $traversePostOrder);

        if (!
$traversePostOrder) {
           
$files = array_merge($files, $subDirContent);
        } else {
           
$files = array_merge($subDirContent, $files);
        }
    }

    return
$files;
};

?>
roland at rd-creation dot fr 05-Feb-2016 09:37
FIX to use GLOB_BRACE pattern in glob_recursive function submitted by Mike

if (! function_exists('glob_recursive')){
    function glob_recursive($pattern, $flags = 0, $startdir = ''){
        $files = glob($startdir.$pattern, $flags);
        foreach (glob($startdir.'*', GLOB_ONLYDIR|GLOB_NOSORT|GLOB_MARK) as $dir){
            $files = array_merge($files, glob_recursive($pattern, $flags, $dir));
        }
        return $files;
    }
}
sharshun dot aliaksandr at gmail dot com 04-Nov-2015 11:26
<?php

function glob_recursive($pattern, $flags = 0){
// forked from https://github.com/rodurma/PHP-Functions/
    // blob/master/glob_recursive.php
 
$files = glob($pattern, $flags);
      
  foreach (
glob(dirname($pattern).'/*',
     
GLOB_ONLYDIR|GLOB_NOSORT) as $dir){
   
$files = array_merge($files, glob_recursive
       
($dir.'/'.basename($pattern), $flags));
  }
  return
$files;
}
// $a=glob_recursive('c:/test_directory/'."*.*");
// print_r($a);

function dirInfoReGet($s){
   
$a=glob_recursive($s."*.*");
   
$ar=glob_recursive($s."**/**");
   
$arr=array_unique(array_merge($a, $ar));

    foreach (
$arr as $v) {
        if (
is_dir($v)) {
           
$arra[0][]=$v.'/';
        } else {
           
$arra[1][]=$v;
        }
    }
   
sort($arra);
    return
$arra;
}
$a=dirInfoReGet('c:/test_directory/');
print_r($a);

?>

http://i.stack.imgur.com/H7UF3.jpg

Best regards.
Anxiety35 at gmail dot com 02-Dec-2014 06:20
After fiddling with GLOB_BRACE a bunch, I have found the most items that can be included in the braces is about 10 before glob no longer returns any matches.

I have a scenario where there can be a thousand or more files to check for where I can't pattern match and need to check specific names. I was hoping to batch them in large groups to see if it would help performance. However, if I include more than 10 in a GLOB_BRACE the function will return FALSE.
rene dot rathmann at gmx dot de 02-Jan-2014 08:05
You can do a recursive file search with yield.

<?php
function findAllDirs($start) {
   
$dirStack=[$start];
    while(
$dir=array_shift($dirStack)) {
       
$ar=glob($dir.'/*',GLOB_ONLYDIR|GLOB_NOSORT);
        if(!
$ar) continue;

       
$dirStack=array_merge($dirStack,$ar);
        foreach(
$ar as $DIR)
            yield
$DIR;
    }
}

$fname='*.php';
$result=[];
foreach(
findAllDirs('/var/www/localhost') as $dir) {
   
$match=glob($dir.'/'.$fname,GLOB_NOSORT);
    if(!
$match) continue;
   
$result=array_merge($result,$match);
}

print_r($result);
?>
mif 11-Jul-2013 06:55
glob() doesn't work on php 5.4.14 with curl extension.

error:
Call to undefined function glob()

function_exists('glob') — false

without curl - ok.
soywiz at gmail dot com 26-Apr-2013 07:26
Recursive glob for PHP>=5.5

function globRecursive($path, $find) {
    $dh = opendir($path);
    while (($file = readdir($dh)) !== false) {
        if (substr($file, 0, 1) == '.') continue;
        $rfile = "{$path}/{$file}";
        if (is_dir($rfile)) {
            foreach (globRecursive($rfile, $find) as $ret) {
                yield $ret;
            }
        } else {
            if (fnmatch($find, $file)) yield $rfile;
        }
    }
    closedir($dh);
}
bimal at sanjaal dot com 08-Mar-2013 01:28
To pick one of the file randomly from your directory with full physical path, you can write something like this:

<?php
function one_random_image_file()
{
   
$files = glob('../images/*.jpg');
   
shuffle($files);
    return
realpath($files[0]);
}
$image_to_read = one_random_image_file();
?>
agd243 at gmail dot com 27-Jan-2013 11:45
A simple function that find all files by extension an return it by an array.
<?php
function findFiles($directory, $extensions = array()) {
    function
glob_recursive($directory, &$directories = array()) {
        foreach(
glob($directory, GLOB_ONLYDIR | GLOB_NOSORT) as $folder) {
           
$directories[] = $folder;
           
glob_recursive("{$folder}/*", $directories);
        }
    }
   
glob_recursive($directory, $directories);
   
$files = array ();
    foreach(
$directories as $directory) {
        foreach(
$extensions as $extension) {
            foreach(
glob("{$directory}/*.{$extension}") as $file) {
               
$files[$extension][] = $file;
            }
        }
    }
    return
$files;
}
var_dump(findFiles("C:", array (

   
"jpg",
   
"pdf",
   
"png",
   
"html"
)));
?>
Gabriel S. Luraschi 31-Oct-2012 03:54
Use this to exclude hidden files on MS Windows.

<?php
exec
("dir \"{$path}\" /A:-H /B", $result);
?>
ni dot pineau at gmail dot com 13-Oct-2012 01:08
Note that in case you are using braces with glob you might retrieve duplicated entries for files that matche more than one item :

<?php

$a
= glob('/path/*{foo,bar}.dat',GLOB_BRACE);
print_r($a);

?>

Result :
Array
(
    [0] => /path/file_foo.dat
    [1] => /path/file_foobar.dat
    [2] => /path/file_foobar.dat
)
Sam Bryan 27-Apr-2012 01:13
glob is case sensitive, even on Windows systems.

It does support character classes though, so a case insensitive version of
<?php glob('my/dir/*.csv') ?>

could be written as
<?php glob('my/dir/*.[cC][sS][vV]') ?>
Mike 21-Nov-2011 04:48
<?php

if ( ! function_exists('glob_recursive'))
{
   
// Does not support flag GLOB_BRACE
   
   
function glob_recursive($pattern, $flags = 0)
    {
       
$files = glob($pattern, $flags);
       
        foreach (
glob(dirname($pattern).'/*', GLOB_ONLYDIR|GLOB_NOSORT) as $dir)
        {
           
$files = array_merge($files, glob_recursive($dir.'/'.basename($pattern), $flags));
        }
       
        return
$files;
    }
}

?>
mkas at destiny dot lt 05-Oct-2011 09:58
recursive file search

<?php
$path
[] = 'starting_place/*';

while(
count($path) != 0)
{
   
$v = array_shift($path);
    foreach(
glob($v) as $item)
    {
        if (
is_dir($item))
           
$path[] = $item . '/*';
        elseif (
is_file($item))
        {
            
//do something
       
}
    }
}
?>
Ultimater at gmail dot com 21-Mar-2011 08:44
glob() isn't limited to one directory:

<?php
$results
=glob("{includes/*.php,core/*.php}",GLOB_BRACE);
echo
'<pre>',print_r($results,true),'</pre>';
?>

Just be careful when using GLOB_BRACE regarding spaces around the comma:
{includes/*.php,core/*.php} works as expected, but
{includes/*.php, core/*.php} with a leading space, will only match the former as expected but not the latter
unless you have a directory named " core" on your machine with a leading space.
PHP can create such directories quite easily like so:
mkdir(" core");
david dot schueler at tel-billig dot de 15-Mar-2011 03:32
Don't use glob() if you try to list files in a directory where very much files are stored (>100.000). You get an "Allowed memory size of XYZ bytes exhausted ..." error.
You may try to increase the memory_limit variable in php.ini. Mine has 128MB set and the script will still reach this limit while glob()ing over 500.000 files.

The more stable way is to use readdir() on very large numbers of files:
<?php
// code snippet
if ($handle = opendir($path)) {
    while (
false !== ($file = readdir($handle))) {
       
// do something with the file
        // note that '.' and '..' is returned even
   
}
   
closedir($handle);
}
?>
troy at troyonline dot com 01-Mar-2011 06:50
If you have open_basedir set in php.ini to limit which files php can execute, glob(...) will return false when there are no matching files.  If open_basedir is not set, the very same code will return an empty array in the same situation.

This is unfortunate as a seemingly innocuous change causes different functionality that breaks code like:

foreach(glob("*.ext") as $file)
...

See this link if you have any questions as to why this is so:
http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=47358
peter dot adrianov at gmail dot com 14-May-2010 01:29
Non-recursive search files, proceeding down directory tree.

<?php
function scandir_through($dir)
{
   
$items = glob($dir . '/*');

    for (
$i = 0; $i < count($items); $i++) {
        if (
is_dir($items[$i])) {
           
$add = glob($items[$i] . '/*');
           
$items = array_merge($items, $add);
        }
    }

    return
$items;
}
?>
BigueNique at yahoo dot ca 08-May-2010 08:45
Here is the function array_prepend() used by my latest post of safe_glob().

<?php
/**
 * Prepends $string to each element of $array
 * If $deep is true, will indeed also apply to sub-arrays
 * @author BigueNique AT yahoo DOT ca
 * @since 080324
 */
function array_prepend($array, $string, $deep=false) {
    if(empty(
$array)||empty($string)) return $array;
    foreach(
$array as $key => $element)
        if(
is_array($element))
            if(
$deep)
               
$array[$key] = array_prepend($element,$string,$deep);
            else
               
trigger_error('array_prepend: array element',E_USER_WARNING);
        else
           
$array[$key] = $string.$element;
    return
$array;
   
}
?>
wang yun 22-Sep-2009 03:00
A function to quickly remove a directory (works in seconds for a hundred thousand files)

<?php
/**
 * Remove the directory and its content (all files and subdirectories).
 * @param string $dir the directory name
 */
function rmrf($dir) {
    foreach (
glob($dir) as $file) {
        if (
is_dir($file)) {
           
rmrf("$file/*");
           
rmdir($file);
        } else {
           
unlink($file);
        }
    }
}
?>
uramihsayibok, gmail, com 05-Aug-2009 12:38
Those of you with PHP 5 don't have to come up with these wild functions to scan a directory recursively: the SPL can do it.

<?php

$dir_iterator
= new RecursiveDirectoryIterator("/path");
$iterator = new RecursiveIteratorIterator($dir_iterator, RecursiveIteratorIterator::SELF_FIRST);
// could use CHILD_FIRST if you so wish

foreach ($iterator as $file) {
    echo
$file, "\n";
}

?>

Not to mention the fact that $file will be an SplFileInfo class, so you can do powerful stuff really easily:

<?php

$size
= 0;
foreach (
$iterator as $file) {
    if (
$file->isFile()) {
        echo
substr($file->getPathname(), 27) . ": " . $file->getSize() . " B; modified " . date("Y-m-d", $file->getMTime()) . "\n";
       
$size += $file->getSize();
    }
}

echo
"\nTotal file size: ", $size, " bytes\n";

?>

\Luna\luna.msstyles: 4190352 B; modified 2008-04-13
\Luna\Shell\Homestead\shellstyle.dll: 362496 B; modified 2006-02-28
\Luna\Shell\Metallic\shellstyle.dll: 362496 B; modified 2006-02-28
\Luna\Shell\NormalColor\shellstyle.dll: 361472 B; modified 2006-02-28
\Luna.theme: 1222 B; modified 2006-02-28
\Windows Classic.theme: 3025 B; modified 2006-02-28

Total file size: 5281063 bytes
endiku 29-Jul-2009 05:47
For those who need to recursively search a directory tree and cannot or wish not to call a function within itself here is another suggestion.

I tried the previously suggested listdirs_safe() and it didn't seem to find all subfolders in a directory tree.

There are two variations on the same theme.

Single Array.
<?php
$dir
='/dir';
while(
$dirs = glob($dir . '/*', GLOB_ONLYDIR)) {
 
$dir .= '/*';
  if(!
$d) {
    
$d=$dirs;
   } else {
     
$d=array_merge($d,$dirs);
   }
}
?>

Multiple arrays.
<?php
$n
=0;
$dir ='/dir';
while(
$dirs = glob($dir . '/*', GLOB_ONLYDIR)) {
 
$dir .= '/*';
  if(!
$d) {
    
$d=$dirs;
   } else {
    
$d[$n]=$dirs;
   }
 
$n++;
}
?>

This will result in the glob looping via "dir/*/*/*/*.." until it is no longer finding a directory structure.
nuntius 06-Jul-2009 07:10
First off, it's nice to see all of the different takes on this. Thanks for all of the great examples.

Fascinated by the foreach usage I was curious how it might work with a for loop. I found that glob was well suited for this, especially compared to opendir.  The for loop is always efficient when you want to protect against a potential endless loop.

$dir=$_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']."/test/directory_listing/test";
    echo $dir;
    $filesArray=glob($dir."/*.*");   
   
    $line.="<pre>";
    $line.=print_r($filesArray, true);
    $line.="</pre>";
    $line.="<hr>";
   
    for($i=0;$i<count($filesArray);$i++) {
        $line.=key($filesArray)." - ";   
        $line.=$filesArray[$i]."<br/>";
         next($filesArray);
    }

    echo $line;

Note that I pulled the glob array keys if you should need them.

Also you can tweak it for searches with something like this... (case sensitive)

$search_names="Somedocname";
$filesArray=glob($dir."/".$search_names."*.*");   
   
Enjoy!
sven at NOSPAM dot sven dot globalunix dot org 11-Jun-2009 06:22
If you want to use wildcard expressions (like they are used by glob() ) to search on strings, you can use this function:

<?php   
function match_wildcard( $wildcard_pattern, $haystack ) {
  
$regex = str_replace(
     array(
"\*", "\?"), // wildcard chars
    
array('.*','.'),   // regexp chars
    
preg_quote($wildcard_pattern)
   );

   return
preg_match('/^'.$regex.'$/is', $haystack);
}

$test = "foobar and blob\netc.";
var_dump(
   
match_wildcard('foo*', $test),      // TRUE
   
match_wildcard('bar*', $test),      // FALSE
   
match_wildcard('*bar*', $test),     // TRUE
   
match_wildcard('**blob**', $test),  // TRUE
   
match_wildcard('*a?d*', $test),     // TRUE
   
match_wildcard('*etc**', $test)     // TRUE
);
?>
r dot hartung at roberthartung dot de 04-May-2009 09:34
You can use multiple asterisks with the glob() - function.

Example:

<?php
  $paths
= glob('my/*/dir/*.php');
?>

$paths will contains paths as following examples:

- my/1/dir/xyz.php
- my/bar/dir/bar.php
- my/bar/dir/foo.php
crayonviolent at phpfreaks dot com 17-Jan-2009 08:50
Since I feel this is rather vague and non-helpful, I thought I'd make a post detailing the mechanics of the glob regex.

glob uses two special symbols that act like sort of a blend between a meta-character and a quantifier.  These two characters are the * and ?

The ? matches 1 of any character except a /
The * matches 0 or more of any character except a /

If it helps, think of the * as the pcre equivalent of .* and ? as the pcre equivalent of the dot (.)

Note: * and ? function independently from the previous character. For instance, if you do glob("a*.php") on the following list of files, all of the files starting with an 'a' will be returned, but * itself would match:

a.php // * matches nothing
aa.php // * matches the second 'a'
ab.php // * matches 'b'
abc.php // * matches 'bc'
b.php // * matches nothing, because the starting 'a' fails
bc.php // * matches nothing, because the starting 'a' fails
bcd.php // * matches nothing, because the starting 'a' fails

It does not match just a.php and aa.php as a 'normal' regex would, because it matches 0 or more of any character, not the character/class/group before it.

Executing glob("a?.php") on the same list of files will only return aa.php and ab.php because as mentioned, the ? is the equivalent of pcre's dot, and is NOT the same as pcre's ?, which would match 0 or 1 of the previous character.

glob's regex also supports character classes and negative character classes, using the syntax [] and [^]. It will match any one character inside [] or match any one character that is not in [^].

With the same list above, executing

glob("[ab]*.php) will return (all of them):
a.php  // [ab] matches 'a', * matches nothing
aa.php // [ab] matches 'a', * matches 2nd 'a'
ab.php // [ab] matches 'a', * matches 'b'
abc.php // [ab] matches 'a', * matches 'bc'
b.php // [ab] matches 'b', * matches nothing
bc.php // [ab] matches 'b', * matches 'c'
bcd.php // [ab] matches 'b', * matches 'cd'

glob("[ab].php") will return a.php and b.php

glob("[^a]*.php") will return:
b.php // [^a] matches 'b', * matches nothing
bc.php // [^a] matches 'b', * matches 'c'
bcd.php // [^a] matches 'b', * matches 'cd'

glob("[^ab]*.php") will return nothing because the character class will fail to match on the first character.

You can also use ranges of characters inside the character class by having a starting and ending character with a hyphen in between.  For example, [a-z] will match any letter between a and z, [0-9] will match any (one) number, etc..

glob also supports limited alternation with {n1, n2, etc..}.  You have to specify GLOB_BRACE as the 2nd argument for glob in order for it to work.  So for example, if you executed glob("{a,b,c}.php", GLOB_BRACE) on the following list of files:

a.php
b.php
c.php

all 3 of them would return.  Note: using alternation with single characters like that is the same thing as just doing glob("[abc].php").  A more interesting example would be glob("te{xt,nse}.php", GLOB_BRACE) on:

tent.php
text.php
test.php
tense.php

text.php and tense.php would be returned from that glob.

glob's regex does not offer any kind of quantification of a specified character or character class or alternation.  For instance, if you have the following files:

a.php
aa.php
aaa.php
ab.php
abc.php
b.php
bc.php

with pcre regex you can do ~^a+\.php$~ to return

a.php
aa.php
aaa.php

This is not possible with glob.  If you are trying to do something like this, you can first narrow it down with glob, and then get exact matches with a full flavored regex engine.  For example, if you wanted all of the php files in the previous list that only have one or more 'a' in it, you can do this:

<?php
   $list
= glob("a*.php");
   foreach (
$list as $l) {
      if (
preg_match("~^a+\.php$~",$file))
        
$files[] = $l;
   }
?>

glob also does not support lookbehinds, lookaheads, atomic groupings, capturing, or any of the 'higher level' regex functions.

glob does not support 'shortkey' meta-characters like \w or \d.
carlos dot lage at nospam at foo dot bar at gmail dot com 18-Oct-2008 03:18
I lost hours looking for the solution for this problem.
glob() wasn't eating up my directory names (stuff like "foobar[]"), and I searched online for some hours, I tried preg_quote to no avail.

I finally found the proper way to escape stuff in glob() in an obscure Python mailing list:

<?php
preg_replace
('/(\*|\?|\[)/', '[$1]', $dir_path);
?>

If you want to add a directory path before your pattern, you should do it like this:

<?php
glob
(preg_replace('/(\*|\?|\[)/', '[$1]', $dir_path).'*.txt');
?>
preg_quote WILL NOT work in all cases (if any).
heavyraptor at gmail dot com 19-May-2008 01:56
glob() (array_sum() and array_map() in fact too) can be very useful if you want to calculate the sum of all the files' sizes located in a directory:

<?php
$bytes
= array_sum(array_map('filesize',glob('*')));
?>

Unfortunately there's no way to do this recursively, using glob() (as far as I know).
pope at q dot com 24-Apr-2008 03:08
alan at ridersite dot org 18-Mar-2007 03:26 -- Stated '*.*' is the same as '*' -- This is not true as * alone will return directories too and *.* will only return files with an extension such as .pdf or .doc or .php.
alan at synergymx dot com 15-Apr-2008 09:08
Here is a function that returns specific files in an array, with all of the details. Includes some basic garbage checking.

Variables

$source_folder // the location of your files
$ext // file extension you want to limit to (i.e.: *.txt)
$sec // if you only want files that are at least so old.

The function

function glob_files($source_folder, $ext, $sec, $limit){
    if( !is_dir( $source_folder ) ) {
        die ( "Invalid directory.\n\n" );
    }
   
    $FILES = glob($source_folder."\*.".$ext);
    $set_limit    = 0;
   
    foreach($FILES as $key => $file) {
   
        if( $set_limit == $limit )    break;
       
        if( filemtime( $file ) > $sec ){
       
            $FILE_LIST[$key]['path']    = substr( $file, 0, ( strrpos( $file, "\\" ) +1 ) );
            $FILE_LIST[$key]['name']    = substr( $file, ( strrpos( $file, "\\" ) +1 ) );   
            $FILE_LIST[$key]['size']    = filesize( $file );
            $FILE_LIST[$key]['date']    = date('Y-m-d G:i:s', filemtime( $file ) );
            $set_limit++;
       
        }
       
    }
    if(!empty($FILE_LIST)){
        return $FILE_LIST;
    } else {
        die( "No files found!\n\n" );
    }
}

So....

$source_folder = "c:\temp\my_videos";
$ext = "flv"; // flash video files
$sec = "7200"; // files older than 2 hours
$limit = 2;

print_r(glob_files($source_folder, $ext, $sec, $limit));

Would return:

Array
(
    [0] => Array
        (
            [path] => c:\temp\my_videos\
            [name] => fluffy_bunnies.flv
            [size] => 21160480
            [date] => 2007-10-30 16:48:05
        )

    [1] => Array
        (
            [path] => c:\temp\my_videos\
            [name] => synergymx.com.flv
            [size] => 14522744
            [date] => 2007-10-25 15:34:45
        )
eric at muyser dot com 11-Apr-2008 05:31
As a follow up to recursively determining all paths (by viajy at yoyo dot org) and opendir being faster than glob (by Sam Yong - hellclanner at live [dot] com).

The list all dirs code didn't seem to work, at least on my server (provided by parazuce [at] gmail [dot] com).

I needed a function to create an unlimited multidimensional array, with the names of the folders/files intact (no realpath's, although that is easily possible). This is so I can simply loop through the array, create an expandable link on the folder name, with all the files inside it.

This is the correct way to recurse I believe (no static, return small arrays to build up the multidimensional array), and includes a check for files/folders beginning with dots.

// may need modifications

function list_files($path)
{
    $files = array();
   
    if(is_dir($path))
    {
        if($handle = opendir($path))
        {
            while(($name = readdir($handle)) !== false)
            {
                if(!preg_match("#^\.#", $name))
                if(is_dir($path . "/" . $name))
                {
                    $files[$name] = list_files($path . "/" . $name);
                }
                else
                {
                    $files[] = $name;
                }
            }
           
            closedir($handle);
        }
    }

    return $files;
}

print_r(list_files("/path/to/folder"));

// example usage

function list_html($list)
{
    $html = "";
   
    foreach($list as $folder => $file)
    {
        if(is_array($list[$folder]))
        {
            $html .= "> (folder) " . $folder . "<br>";
            $html .= list_html($list[$folder]);
        }
        else
        {
            $html .= " (file) " . $file . "<br>";
        }
    }
   
    return $html;
}

echo list_html(list_files("/path/to/folder"));
parazuce [at] gmail [dot] com 31-Mar-2008 02:47
As a response to a post by viajy at yoyo dot org on 10-Feb-2007 04:50, he posted the following code:
<?php
function listdirs($dir) {
    static
$alldirs = array();
   
$dirs = glob($dir . '/*', GLOB_ONLYDIR);
    if (
count($dirs) > 0) {
        foreach (
$dirs as $d) $alldirs[] = $d;
    }
    foreach (
$dirs as $dir) listdirs($dir);
    return
$alldirs;
}
?>

It is not best practice to use recursive functions like that, so I wrote a safe (non-recursive) function below:

<?php
function listdirs_safe($start)
{
   
$dir  = $start;
   
$dirs = array();
   
$next = 0;

    while (
true)
    {
       
$_dirs = glob($dir.'/*', GLOB_ONLYDIR);

        if (
count($_dirs) > 0)
        {
            foreach (
$_dirs as $key => $_dir)
               
$dirs[] = $_dir;
        }
        else
            break;
           
       
$dir = $dirs[$next++];
    }
   
    return
$dirs;
}
?>

Example:

print_r(listdirs_safe('*'));

Output:
Array
(
    [0] => Dummy folder/Dummy folder 2
    [1] => Dummy folder/Dummy folder 2/Dummy Folder 3
    [2] => Dummy folder/Dummy folder 2/Dummy Folder 3/4
    [3] => Dummy folder/Dummy folder 2/Dummy Folder 3/Dummy folder 4
    [4] => Dummy folder/Dummy folder 2/Dummy Folder 3/4/5
)
josh at servebyte dot com 23-Jul-2007 02:55
To:  martinlarsen at bigfoot dot com (14-Jun-2007 01:13)

[quote]
glob() does not work if the path contains brackets "[" and "]".

For example, this will make it fail:

$files = glob("[myfolder]/*.txt");

No error is returned, just an empty array!
[/quote]

Hi there,
if you backslash the brackets, it should work. Try:
$files = glob("\[myfolder\]/*.txt");
Hope this helps.
martinlarsen at bigfoot dot com 14-Jun-2007 02:13
glob() does not work if the path contains brackets "[" and "]".

For example, this will make it fail:

$files = glob("[myfolder]/*.txt");

No error is returned, just an empty array!
nataxia at gmail dot com 08-May-2007 01:05
Something I used to sort dir & subdir into array (multidimensional) reflecting dir structure.

    function getRecursiveFolderList($curDir,$currentA=false)
      {                   
        $dirs = glob($curDir . '/*', GLOB_ONLYDIR);    
       
        $cur = 0;
        foreach($dirs as $dir)
          {
            $currentA[$cur]['path'] = $dir;
            $currentA[$cur] = $this->getRecursiveFolderList($dir,$currentA[$cur]);
               
            ++$cur;
          }

        return $currentA;
      }
25-Mar-2007 05:41
Reply to ny_obaATgmxDOTnet:

You could also use sql_regcase() to build a pattern for case insensitive matches.
You may also want to set the locale before, so it is used when building the pattern.

<?php

$pattern
= sql_case("*.pdf");

var_dump(glob($pattern));

?>

should therefore match file.pdf AND OtherFile.PDF

See http://www.php.net/sql_regcase for more information.
alan at ridersite dot org 18-Mar-2007 08:26
A couple of notes:
glob() handles symbolic filesystem links and resolves references to './', '../'  nicely and handles an extra '/' character , at least on X-systems. e.g., glob("../*") will do next higher dir.

This is good to use so warnings or errors show as "../foo" and not your system's full path. 

Several of the examples use a notation "*.*" when just plain "*" does the same thing.  The "*.*" notation is misleading as it implies foo.ext will not be found with "*" because the "." is not present.

Watch the flags must not be strings. They are defined constants. Thus,
glob("../*", GLOB_ONLYDIR)  works;
glob("../*", "GLOB_ONLYDIR")  does not.
viajy at yoyo dot org 10-Feb-2007 01:50
this is a recursive function i wrote to return an array of all subdirectories of a dir

function listdirs($dir) {
    static $alldirs = array();
    $dirs = glob($dir . '/*', GLOB_ONLYDIR);
    if (count($dirs) > 0) {
        foreach ($dirs as $d) $alldirs[] = $d;
    }
    foreach ($dirs as $dir) listdirs($dir);
    return $alldirs;
}

example:
print_r(listdirs('/some/path'));
lesion at autistici dot org 04-Dec-2006 05:14
Maybe all of you still know this, but it seems that if the directory contains some unresolved symlink, glob() simply ignore those files.
torch at torchsdomain dot com 22-Nov-2006 09:25
Here is simple function that will find and remove all files (except "." ones) that match the expression ($match, "*" as wildcard) under starting directory ($path) and all other directories under it.

function rfr($path,$match){
   static $deld = 0, $dsize = 0;
   $dirs = glob($path."*");
   $files = glob($path.$match);
   foreach($files as $file){
      if(is_file($file)){
         $dsize += filesize($file);
         unlink($file);
         $deld++;
      }
   }
   foreach($dirs as $dir){
      if(is_dir($dir)){
         $dir = basename($dir) . "/";
         rfr($path.$dir,$match);
      }
   }
   return "$deld files deleted with a total size of $dsize bytes";
}
guilleva at gmail dot com 20-Oct-2006 05:54
In some systems (AIX for example) GLOB_BRACE isn't defined and you get the error:
glob() expects parameter 2 to be long, string given in /XX/XX.php

<?

foreach (glob("{*.pdf,*.PDF}",GLOB_BRACE ) as $filename) {
      echo "$filename \n";
}

?>

The method may help you in this case.

<?

foreach (array_merge(glob("*.pdf"),glob("*.PDF")) as $filename) {
      echo "$filename \n";
}

?>
joseph dot morphy at gmail dot com 16-Aug-2006 08:01
<?php
$html_array
= glob("*.html");

function
sort_by_mtime($file1,$file2) {
   
$time1 = filemtime($file1);
   
$time2 = filemtime($file2);
    if (
$time1 == $time2) {
        return
0;
    }
    return (
$time1 < $time2) ? 1 : -1;
    }

usort($html_array,"sort_by_mtime");
//$html_array is now ordered by the time it was last modified
?>
redcube at gmx dot de 14-Aug-2006 11:22
Please note that glob('*') ignores all 'hidden' files by default. This means it does not return files that start with a dot (e.g. ".file").
If you want to match those files too, you can use "{,.}*" as the pattern with the GLOB_BRACE flag.

<?php
// Search for all files that match .* or *
$files = glob('{,.}*', GLOB_BRACE);
?>

Note: This also returns the directory special entries . and ..
info at urbits dot com 06-Jan-2006 01:26
I have been working towards a CMS-type design that is both modular and quite flat. For example, included files are all one level below the installation folder.

glob() just help me get rid of a lot of opendir() hassle. I wasn't sure if the double asterix would work - but it's fine:

foreach (glob(SERVER_PATH."/*/includes/*.php") as $inc) {
   require($inc);
}
admiral [at] nuclearpixel [dot] com 23-Nov-2005 05:38
I've written a function that I've been using quite a lot over the past year or so. I've built whole websites and their file based CMSs based on this one function, mostly because (I think) databases are not as portable as groups of files and folders. In previous versions, I used opendir and readdir to get contents, but now I can do in one line what used to take several. How? Most of the work in the whole script is done by calling

glob("$dir/*")

Giving me an array containing the names of the items in the folder, minus the ones beginning with '.', as well as the ones I specify.

<?php

/* alpharead version 3: This function returns an array containing the names of the files inside any given folder, excluding files that start with a '.', as well as the filenames listed in the '$killit' array. This array is sorted using the 'natural alphabetical' sorting manner. If no input is given to the function, it lists items in the script's interpreted folder. Version 3 fixes a MAJOR bug in version 2 which corrupted certain arrays with greater than 5 keys and one of the supposedly removed filenames.
written by Admiral at NuclearPixel.com */

function alpharead3($dir){
if(!
$dir){$dir = '.';}
foreach(
glob("$dir/*") as $item){$sort[]= end(explode('/',$item));}

$killit = array('index.html', 'index.php', 'thumbs.db', 'styles.css');
$killcounter = 0;
foreach(
$sort as $sorteditem){
foreach(
$killit as $killcheck){
if(
strtolower($sorteditem) == strtolower($killcheck))
{unset(
$sort[$killcounter]);}
}
$killcounter++;}
if(
$sort){natsort($sort);}
foreach(
$sort as $item){$return[]= $item;}

if(!
$return){return array();}
return
$return;
}

//some basic usage

$folder = 'images';
foreach(
alpharead3($folder) as $item)
{
echo
'<img src="'.$folder.'/'.$item.'"><br>'.$item."\n";
}

?>

Commens on this function are welcome!
DMan 28-Aug-2005 09:59
Whilst on Windows, a path starting with a slash resolves OK for most file functions - but NOT glob.
If the server is LAUNCHED (or chdir()ed) to W:, then
file_exists("/temp/test.txt")
returns true for the file "W:/temp/test.txt".
But glob("/temp/*.txt") FAILS to find it!

A solution (if you want to avoid getting drive letters into your code) is to chdir() first, then just look for the file.
<?php
$glob
="/temp/*.txt";
chdir(dirname($glob));
// getcwd() is now actually "W:\temp" or whatever

foreach (glob(basename($glob)) as $filename) {
  
$filepath = dirname($glob)."/".$filename; // must re-attach full path
  
echo "$filepath size " . filesize($filepath) . "\n";
}
?>

Note also, glob() IS case sensitive although most other file funcs on Windows are not.
fraggy(AT)chello.nl 24-Mar-2005 12:23
glob caused me some real pain in the buttom on windows, because of the DOS thing with paths (backslashes instead of slashes)...

This was my own fault because I "forgot" that the backslash, when used in strings, needs to be escaped, but well, it can cause a lot of confusion, even for people who are not exactly newbies anymore...

For some reason, I didn't have this problem with other file operations (chdir, opendir, etc...), which was the most confusing of all...

So, for people running scripts on Windows machines (Dos95, 98 or WinNT or DosXP), just remember this:

glob('c:\temp\*.*'); // works correctly, returns an array with files.
glob("c:\temp\*.*"); // does NOT work... the backslashes need to be escaped...
glob("c:\\temp\\*.*"); // that works again...

This is especially confusing when temporary writable directories are returned as an unescaped string.

$tempdir = getenv('TEMP');
// this returns "C:\DOCUME~1\user\LOCALS~1\Temp"
so in order to scan that directoy I need to do:

glob($tempdir . "\\*.*");

Or perhaps it's easier to replace all backslashes with slashes in order to avoid these kinds of confusions...

glob("c:/temp/*.*"); // works fine too...

I know I'm not contributing anything new here, but I just hope this post may avoid some unnecessary headaches...
NOSPAM sketch at infinite dot net dot au 15-Mar-2005 02:05
in the example below, i found i got an error if the directory was empty.

<?php
foreach (glob("*.txt") as $filename) {
   echo
"$filename size " . filesize($filename) . "\n";
}
?>

I think its because glob()'ing an empty directory returns false, and so calling foreach (false as $value) will obviously break.

to fix this, i did the following:
<?php
$files
= glob("*.txt) or array(); // give it an empty array if the directory is empty or glob fails otherwise
   echo "
$filename size " . filesize($filename) . "\n";
}
?>

Hope this helps someone
23-Jan-2005 10:54
The example on this page will generate a warning if the glob function does not find any filenames that match the pattern.

The glob function result will only be an array if it finds some files and the foreach statement requires its argument to be an array.

By checking for the possibility that the result of the glob function may not be an array you can eliminate the warning.

Here's a better example:

<?php
$matches
= glob("*.txt");
if (
is_array ( $matches ) ) {
   foreach (
$matches as $filename) {
      echo
"$filename size " . filesize($filename) . "\n";
   }
}
?>