PHP:: How to delete a file from server after is read. Unlink() is executed before

Question

I'm trying to delete a picture (.jpg) from server after the first time showed. But the file is deleted (unlink();) before showed. I've already tried with sleep() but this only delay the loading and after all the file is deleted before showed.

Winkle

If you post your relevant code, this is most likely an easy fix. Without seeing your code, you probably won't get any (useful) answers. – Rhodes

Answer 1

You could use mod_rewrite to redirect jpg requests to a script that loads the image into memory, deletes the file, then serves up the image. IMO, this is the simplest and easiest solution. Unsafe example below...

Example .htaccess file:

# Turn on URL rewriting
RewriteEngine On

# Rewrite all other URLs to index.php/URL
RewriteRule .* index.php/$0 [PT]

index.php

<?php

$image_file = $_SERVER['PATH_INFO'];

// clean data, strip current/parent directory to block transversal, etc...

if (file_exists('images/' . $image_file))
{
    $image_data = file_get_contents('images/' . $image_file);

    // determine image mimetype using phps mimetype functions

    unlink('images/' . $image_file);

    header('Content-Type: image/jpeg');

    echo $image_data;
}

Apocarpous

I'm not convinced that the OP wants to delete all JPG images after first viewing. Additionally, your .htaccess seems completely unrelated to the question/answer? – Insomnia

@Tomalak, I assumed OP wanted a one-time-view image scripts. Above code is only an example, he'd need to modify it to reflect the correct images path, add mimetype detection, etc. It uses htaccess to essentially proxy requests through a php script. The script returns the image and deletes it (some image hosts have a single-view, its useful if you want to share an image with a single person, and don't want it to become a permanent fixture on the internet). – Apocarpous

Perhaps the answer ought to include that as a caveat, before he comes back complaining that we deleted all of his photos :) – Insomnia

Answer 2

• Copy the image contents from the file into memory;
• Delete the image file;
• Stream the original contents from memory to output.

Best I can do with the vagueness, I'm afraid.

Insomnia

Answer 3

This is because all PHP is executed in the stack prior to rendering the output. You will need to set up a function to flag the file for deletion on the next page load.

OR you can set up some AJAX to delete the picture after the document has loaded.

Lenoir

Output is rendered during PHP execution. That's what PHP scripts do. – Insomnia