3 Ways To Copy Entire Folder In PHP (Quick Examples)

Welcome to a quick tutorial and examples of how to copy an entire folder in PHP. Having trouble with copying files in PHP? Can’t find a native function that will copy entire folders?

That covers the basics, but how can we recursively copy the sub-folders too? Read on for more examples!

ⓘ I have included a zip file with all the source code at the start of this tutorial, so you don’t have to copy-paste everything… Or if you just want to dive straight in.

 

 

TLDR – QUICK SLIDES

Fullscreen Mode – Click Here

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

 

QUICK NOTES

If you spot a bug, feel free to comment below. I try to answer short questions too, but it is one person versus the entire world… If you need answers urgently, please check out my list of websites to get help with programming.

 

EXAMPLE CODE DOWNLOAD

Click here to download all the example source code, I have released it under the MIT license, so feel free to build on top of it or use it in your own project.

 

 

 

1) RECURSIVE COPY FOLDER USING GLOB

<?php
// (A) COPY ENTIRE FOLDER
function copyfolder ($from, $to, $ext="*") {
  // (A1) SOURCE FOLDER CHECK
  if (!is_dir($from)) { exit("$from does not exist"); }
 
  // (A2) CREATE DESTINATION FOLDER
  if (!is_dir($to)) {
    if (!mkdir($to)) { exit("Failed to create $to"); };
    echo "$to created\r\n";
  }
 
  // (A3) GET ALL FILES + FOLDERS IN SOURCE
  $all = glob("$from$ext", GLOB_MARK);
  print_r($all);
 
  // (A4) COPY FILES + RECURSIVE INTERNAL FOLDERS
  if (count($all)>0) { foreach ($all as $a) {
    $ff = basename($a); // CURRENT FILE/FOLDER
    if (is_dir($a)) {
      copyfolder("$from$ff/", "$to$ff/");
    } else {
      if (!copy($a, "$to$ff")) { exit("Error copying $a to $to$ff"); }
      echo "$a copied to $to$ff\r\n";
    }
  }}
}
 
// (B) GO!
copyfolder("C:/SOURCE/", "C:/TARGET/");

This is pretty much the “full version” of the snippet in the introduction. Not going to explain line-by-line, but the essentials are:

• Get all the files and folders inside the source folder – $all = glob("$from$ext", GLOB_MARK);
• Loop through all the files and folders – foreach ($all as $a) { ... }
• If it is a folder, we call the function recursively to dig in – if (is_dir($a)) { copyfolder(SOURCE, DESTINATION); }
• If it is a file, simply copy it to the destination folder – copy(SOURCE, DESTINATION);

This script will work just fine, but there is a potential problem with it. If the folder contains too many files, glob() can break the process with an “out-of-memory” error – This is where the next solution comes in handy.

 

 

2) RECURSIVE COPY FOLDER USING READDIR

<?php
// (A) COPY ENTIRE FOLDER
function copyfolder ($from, $to) {
  // (A1) SOURCE FOLDER CHECK
  if (!is_dir($from)) { exit("$from does not exist"); }
 
  // (A2) CREATE DESTINATION FOLDER
  if (!is_dir($to)) {
    if (!mkdir($to)) { exit("Failed to create $to"); };
    echo "$to created\r\n";
  }
 
  // (A3) COPY FILES + RECURSIVE INTERNAL FOLDERS
  $dir = opendir($from);
  while (($ff = readdir($dir)) !== false) { if ($ff!="." && $ff!="..") {
    if (is_dir("$from$ff")) {
      copyfolder("$from$ff/", "$to$ff/");
    } else {
      if (!copy("$from$ff", "$to$ff")) { exit("Error copying $from$ff to $to$ff"); }
      echo "$from$ff copied to $to$ff\r\n";
    }
  }}
  closedir($dir);
}
 
// (B) GO!
copyfolder("C:/SOURCE/", "C:/TARGET/");

Look no further, this is the same recursive mechanic. The difference here is that we are using $ff = readdir($dir) to read the folders one by one – This is a safer alternative to deal with massive folders.

 

 

3) COPY FOLDER USING OS COMMAND

<?php
// (A) SOURCE & TARGET
$from = "C:\\SOURCE";
$to = "C:\\TARGET";
 
// (B) COPY COMMAND
$os = strtolower(PHP_OS_FAMILY); // PHP 7.2 & ABOVE ONLY
$cmd = "";
if ($os == "windows") { $cmd = "Xcopy $from $to /E/H/C/I"; }
if ($os =="linux") { $cmd = "cp -R $from $to"; }
if ($cmd=="") { exit("Error copying"); }
 
// (C) RUN!
echo $cmd;
echo exec($cmd);

Lastly, here is the so-called “best alternative” – Just run a terminal command to copy the files, let the OS deal with it.

P.S. You need to give PHP permission to run the terminal command though.

 

 

 

LINKS & REFERENCES

• Copy – PHP
• Glob – PHP
• Read Dir – PHP
• Exec – PHP

 

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