Php auto delete file after time

In PHP, you can automatically delete a file after a certain period of time using the combination of filemtime() function and the unlink() function.

The filemtime() function returns the last modified time of a file, while the unlink() function is used to delete the file.

Here is an example that demonstrates the auto-deletion of a file after a specific time period:

    <?php
    $file = 'path/to/your/file.txt';
    $expirationTime = time() + (60 * 60 * 24); // Set expiration time to 24 hours from current time
    
    // Check if the file exists
    if (file_exists($file)) {
        // Get the last modified time of the file
        $lastModifiedTime = filemtime($file);
        
        // Check if the file has reached the expiration time
        if ($lastModifiedTime < $expirationTime) {
            // File has expired, delete it
            unlink($file);
            echo 'File has been deleted.';
        } else {
            echo 'File has not reached the expiration time yet.';
        }
    } else {
        echo 'File does not exist.';
    }
    ?>
    

In this example, we have set the expiration time to be 24 hours from the current time. You can modify it according to your requirements.

The code starts by defining the path to your file in the $file variable.

Then, it sets the $expirationTime by adding the desired time period (in seconds) to the current time using the time() function.

Next, it checks if the file exists using the file_exists() function. If the file exists, it retrieves the last modified time of the file using the filemtime() function.

It compares the last modified time with the expiration time to determine whether the file has reached the expiration time.

If it has, the code uses the unlink() function to delete the file and displays a message indicating the file has been deleted. Otherwise, it displays a message stating that the file has not reached the expiration time yet.

If the file does not exist, it displays a message indicating that the file does not exist.