In this article, we will explain to you how to copy a file from one directory to another in PHP. In the upcoming articles, we’ll also show you how to rename, move or delete a file using PHP.

Copy a file using PHP

Using the built-in function copy(), we can copy a file in the same directory or one to another directory. It’s a very simple and easy way to copy a file using PHP.

This function requires two required arguments: the first one is the source path (A file path of file which wants to be copied) and second one is the destination path (A file path where copy a file). The copy() function returns a true on success otherwise false as a boolean value.

Note: If the source file already exists in the destination folder then it will be overwritten.

Let’s check the syntax and simple examples.

Syntax

Parameters

• $source: It specifies the file path that you want to copy.
• $destination: It specifies the file path where you want to copy.
• $context: This is an optional parameter. It specifies the context resource created with the stream_context_create() function.

Example 1: Copy a file in the same directory

In the following example, we will see how to copy a file named file1.txt to file2.txt in the same directory.

Example 2: Copy a file from one directory to another.

In this second example, we will copy a file from one directory to another directory. The code for both examples is the same, only the paths are different.

That’s it for today.
Thank you for reading. Happy Coding..!!