Now that we’ve talked about files, it’s time to talk about directory access.  PHP has a whole variety of functions designed just for this!  Here are the important ones:

• chdir($dir): Change working directory
• $dir = getcwd(): Get working directory
• mkdir($dir, [$permission], [$recursive]): Create a new directory with permission model (in octal) $permission
• is_dir($directory): Check if path is an actual directory
• chmod($file, $permission): Change permission of a file/directory with a permission model (also in octal)
• chgrp($file, $group): Change group ownership of a file/directory
• chown($file, $name): Change ownership of a file/directory
• $array = scandir($folder): Return a list of files/directories in the specified folder

Network Access

Basic network access is performed very similarly to file access.

Obviously, you cannot use ALL the same functions as for example, you cannot write to a website stream.

This is the most basic form of access, you can also use curl (which I love) for a more advanced approach.

Tomorrow I’ll cover Advanced Streaming.