Question

Is there a way to get the status how long does it takes to copy the file.

With the php rename function.

rename($old_dest, $new_dest);

Answer 1

When you rename a file, you have to distinguish two scenarios:

• The old name and the new name are on the same filesystem. In this case, the operating system only needs to modify two directory entries.
• The old name and the new name are on different filesystems. That means that renaming is equivalent to copying and then removing the old file. Therefore, the amount of time it takes will depend on the size of the file.

In either case, the speed will depend on, in roughly descending order:

1. The I/O usage of the system. If thousands of processes modify files in parallel to yours, any filesystem operating will be slow.
2. The in-memory cache of the operating systems. Modern operating systems (Linux >= 2.4, Windows >=6) will just perform the renaming in their in-memory cache, return to userspace, and then later write it on disk.
3. The speed of the physical disk. In the first case, the seek speed is more important than the throughput.
4. The operating system (specifically, its filesystem and block device drivers).
5. The filesystem you’ve chosen.
6. The programming language (i.e. php vs C) will not have any significant impact.

If you want to get specific numbers, just try it. You can measure the time it took with
getrusage.