PHP Cookbook

19.6. Copying or Moving a File

Problem

You want to copy or move a file.

Solution

Use copy( ) to copy a file:

copy($old,$new) or die("couldn't copy $old to $new: $php_errormsg");

Use rename( ) to move a file:

rename($old,$new) or die("couldn't move $old to $new: $php_errormsg");

Discussion

On Unix, rename( ) can’t move files across filesystems. To do so, copy the file to the new location and then delete the old file:

if (copy("/tmp/code.c","/usr/local/src/code.c")) {
  unlink("/tmp/code.c");
}

If you have multiple files to copy or move, call copy( ) or rename( ) in a loop. You can operate only on one file each time you call these functions.

See Also

Documentation on copy( ) at http://www.php.net/copy and rename( ) at http://www.php.net/rename.