How to delete a file from public directory using the File facade

Overview

In this shot, we go through how to delete files from your public directory. In our public directory, we have a folder called upload. Within that folder, we have the test.png file we want to delete.

Step 1

We check if the file exists so that we don’t try to delete a file that doesn’t exist, resulting in errors.

We do this using the following:

File::exists(public_path('upload/test.png'))

Step 2

We delete the file if it exists:

File::delete(public_path('upload/test.png'));

If the file doesn’t exist, you send a response. Here, we just dump:

dd('File does not exists.');

Here is the complete code block done in a DeleteController:

<?php
  
namespace App\Http\Controllers;
  
use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use File;
  
class DeleteController extends Controller
{
    /**
     * Write code on Construct
     *
     * @return \Illuminate\Http\Response
     */  
    public function removeImage(Request $request)
    {
        if(File::exists(public_path('upload/test.png'))){
            File::delete(public_path('upload/test.png'));
        }else{
            dd('File does not exists.');
        }
    }
}