Question

I have a php script that attempts to remove all files from a directory structure, but preserve everything in svn. I found this command online which does the job perfectly if you plug it directly in a shell

find /my/folder/path/ -path \'*/.svn\' -prune -o -type f -exec rm {} +

Unfortunately if I perform a shell_exec in php on that command like so:

$cmd = 'find $folderPath -path \'*/.svn\' -prune -o -type f -exec rm {} +';
shell_exec($cmd);

Then all the files in my current directory that I call the php script from are deleted as well.

Can someone explain why, and how to fix the issue so that I can fix the php script so it acts like expected, removing only those files in the specified folder

The full source code is below, just in case there is perhaps a silly mistake in there that I have missed:

<?php

# This script simply removes all files from a specified folder, that aren't directories or .svn 
# files. It will see if a folder path was given as a cli parameter, and if not, ask the user if they 
# want to remove the files in their current directory.

$execute = false;

if (isset($argv[1]))
{
    $folderPath = $argv[1];
    $execute = true;
}
else
{
    $folderPath = getcwd();
    $answer = readline("Remove all files but not folders or svn files in $folderPath (y/n)?" . PHP_EOL);

    if ($answer == 'Y' || $answer == 'y')
    {
        $execute = true;
    }
}

if ($execute)
{
    # Strip out the last / if it was given by accident as this can cause deletion of wrong files
    if (substr($folderPath, -1) != '/')
    {
        $folderPath .= "/";
    }

    print "Removing files from $folderPath" . PHP_EOL;
    $cmd = 'find $folderPath -path \'*/.svn\' -prune -o -type f -exec rm {} +';
    shell_exec($cmd);
}
else
{
    print "Ok not bothering." . PHP_EOL;
}

print "Done" . PHP_EOL;

?>

Answer 1

Your command looks okay. At least in shell. If you would actually troubleshoot your issue in PHP with a simple

var_dump($cmd);

You would see where your error lies:

$cmd = 'find $folderPath -path \'*/.svn\' -prune -o -type f -exec rm {} +';

Look closely. Hint: A single can’t make a double for a dollar.