finder.rst

The Finder Component

The Finder component finds files and directories based on different criteria (name, file size, modification time, etc.) via an intuitive fluent interface.

Installation

$ composer require symfony/finder

Usage

The :class:`Symfony\\Component\\Finder\\Finder` class finds files and/or directories:

use Symfony\Component\Finder\Finder;

$finder = new Finder();
// find all files in the current directory
$finder->files()->in(__DIR__);

// check if there are any search results
if ($finder->hasResults()) {
    // ...
}

foreach ($finder as $file) {
    $absoluteFilePath = $file->getRealPath();
    $fileNameWithExtension = $file->getRelativePathname();

    // ...
}

The $file variable is an instance of :class:`Symfony\\Component\\Finder\\SplFileInfo` which extends PHP's own :phpclass:`SplFileInfo` to provide methods to work with relative paths.

Warning

The Finder object doesn't reset its internal state automatically. This means that you need to create a new instance if you do not want to get mixed results.

Searching for Files and Directories

The component provides lots of methods to define the search criteria. They all can be chained because they implement a fluent interface.

Location

The location is the only mandatory criteria. It tells the finder which directory to use for the search:

$finder->in(__DIR__);

Search in several locations by chaining calls to :method:`Symfony\\Component\\Finder\\Finder::in`:

// search inside *both* directories
$finder->in([__DIR__, '/elsewhere']);

// same as above
$finder->in(__DIR__)->in('/elsewhere');

Use * as a wildcard character to search in the directories matching a pattern (each pattern has to resolve to at least one directory path):

$finder->in('src/Symfony/*/*/Resources');

Exclude directories from matching with the :method:`Symfony\\Component\\Finder\\Finder::exclude` method:

// directories passed as argument must be relative to the ones defined with the in() method
$finder->in(__DIR__)->exclude('ruby');

It's also possible to ignore directories that you don't have permission to read:

$finder->ignoreUnreadableDirs()->in(__DIR__);

As the Finder uses PHP iterators, you can pass any URL with a supported PHP wrapper for URL-style protocols (ftp://, zlib://, etc.):

// always add a trailing slash when looking for in the FTP root dir
$finder->in('ftp://example.com/');

// you can also look for in a FTP directory
$finder->in('ftp://example.com/pub/');

And it also works with user-defined streams:

use Symfony\Component\Finder\Finder;

// register a 's3://' wrapper with the official AWS SDK
$s3Client = new Aws\S3\S3Client([/* config options */]);
$s3Client->registerStreamWrapper();

$finder = new Finder();
$finder->name('photos*')->size('< 100K')->date('since 1 hour ago');
foreach ($finder->in('s3://bucket-name') as $file) {
    // ... do something with the file
}

.. seealso::

    Read the `PHP streams`_ documentation to learn how to create your own streams.

Files or Directories

By default, the Finder returns both files and directories. If you need to find either files or directories only, use the :method:`Symfony\\Component\\Finder\\Finder::files` and :method:`Symfony\\Component\\Finder\\Finder::directories` methods:

// look for files only; ignore directories
$finder->files();

// look for directories only; ignore files
$finder->directories();

If you want to follow symbolic links, use the followLinks() method:

$finder->files()->followLinks();

Note that this method follows links but it doesn't resolve them. Consider the following structure of files of directories:

├── folder1/
│   ├──file1.txt
│   ├── file2link (symbolic link to folder2/file2.txt file)
│   └── folder3link (symbolic link to folder3/ directory)
├── folder2/
│   └── file2.txt
└── folder3/
    └── file3.txt

If you try to find all files in folder1/ via $finder->files()->in('/path/to/folder1/') you'll get the following results:

• When not using the followLinks() method: file1.txt and file2link (this link is not resolved). The folder3link doesn't appear in the results because it's not followed or resolved;
• When using the followLinks() method: file1.txt, file2link (this link is still not resolved) and folder3/file3.txt (this file appears in the results because the folder1/folder3link link was followed).

Version Control Files

Version Control Systems (or "VCS" for short), such as Git and Mercurial, create some special files to store their metadata. Those files are ignored by default when looking for files and directories, but you can change this with the ignoreVCS() method:

$finder->ignoreVCS(false);

If the search directory and its subdirectories contain .gitignore files, you can reuse those rules to exclude files and directories from the results with the :method:`Symfony\\Component\\Finder\\Finder::ignoreVCSIgnored` method:

// excludes files/directories matching the .gitignore patterns
$finder->ignoreVCSIgnored(true);

The rules of a directory always override the rules of its parent directories.

Note

Git looks for .gitignore files starting from the repository root directory. Symfony's Finder behavior is different and it looks for .gitignore files starting from the directory used to search files/directories. To be consistent with Git behavior, you should explicitly search from the Git repository root.

File Name

Find files by name with the :method:`Symfony\\Component\\Finder\\Finder::name` method:

$finder->files()->name('*.php');

The name() method accepts globs, strings, regexes or an array of globs, strings or regexes:

$finder->files()->name('/\.php$/');

Multiple filenames can be defined by chaining calls or passing an array:

$finder->files()->name('*.php')->name('*.twig');

// same as above
$finder->files()->name(['*.php', '*.twig']);

The notName() method excludes files matching a pattern:

$finder->files()->notName('*.rb');

Multiple filenames can be excluded by chaining calls or passing an array:

$finder->files()->notName('*.rb')->notName('*.py');

// same as above
$finder->files()->notName(['*.rb', '*.py']);

File Contents

Find files by content with the :method:`Symfony\\Component\\Finder\\Finder::contains` method:

$finder->files()->contains('lorem ipsum');

The contains() method accepts strings or regexes:

$finder->files()->contains('/lorem\s+ipsum$/i');

The notContains() method excludes files containing given pattern:

$finder->files()->notContains('dolor sit amet');

Path

Find files and directories by path with the :method:`Symfony\\Component\\Finder\\Finder::path` method:

// matches files that contain "data" anywhere in their paths (files or directories)
$finder->path('data');
// for example this will match data/*.xml and data.xml if they exist
$finder->path('data')->name('*.xml');

Use the forward slash (i.e. /) as the directory separator on all platforms, including Windows. The component makes the necessary conversion internally.

The path() method accepts a string, a regular expression or an array of strings or regular expressions:

$finder->path('foo/bar');
$finder->path('/^foo\/bar/');

Multiple paths can be defined by chaining calls or passing an array:

$finder->path('data')->path('foo/bar');

// same as above
$finder->path(['data', 'foo/bar']);

Internally, strings are converted into regular expressions by escaping slashes and adding delimiters:

Original Given String	Regular Expression Used
dirname	/dirname/
a/b/c	/a\/b\/c/

The :method:`Symfony\\Component\\Finder\\Finder::notPath` method excludes files by path:

$finder->notPath('other/dir');

Multiple paths can be excluded by chaining calls or passing an array:

$finder->notPath('first/dir')->notPath('other/dir');

// same as above
$finder->notPath(['first/dir', 'other/dir']);

File Size

Find files by size with the :method:`Symfony\\Component\\Finder\\Finder::size` method:

$finder->files()->size('< 1.5K');

Restrict by a size range by chaining calls or passing an array:

$finder->files()->size('>= 1K')->size('<= 2K');

// same as above
$finder->files()->size(['>= 1K', '<= 2K']);

The comparison operator can be any of the following: >, >=, <, <=, ==, !=.

The target value may use magnitudes of kilobytes (k, ki), megabytes (m, mi), or gigabytes (g, gi). Those suffixed with an i use the appropriate 2**n version in accordance with the IEC standard.

File Date

Find files by last modified dates with the :method:`Symfony\\Component\\Finder\\Finder::date` method:

$finder->date('since yesterday');

Restrict by a date range by chaining calls or passing an array:

$finder->date('>= 2018-01-01')->date('<= 2018-12-31');

// same as above
$finder->date(['>= 2018-01-01', '<= 2018-12-31']);

The comparison operator can be any of the following: >, >=, <, <=, ==. You can also use since or after as an alias for >, and until or before as an alias for <.

The target value can be any date supported by :phpfunction:`strtotime`.

Directory Depth

By default, the Finder recursively traverses directories. Restrict the depth of traversing with :method:`Symfony\\Component\\Finder\\Finder::depth`:

// this will only consider files/directories which are direct children
$finder->depth('== 0');
$finder->depth('< 3');

Restrict by a depth range by chaining calls or passing an array:

$finder->depth('> 2')->depth('< 5');

// same as above
$finder->depth(['> 2', '< 5']);

Custom Filtering

To filter results with your own strategy, use :method:`Symfony\\Component\\Finder\\Finder::filter`:

$filter = function (\SplFileInfo $file)
{
    if (strlen($file) > 10) {
        return false;
    }
};

$finder->files()->filter($filter);

The filter() method takes a Closure as an argument. For each matching file, it is called with the file as a :class:`Symfony\\Component\\Finder\\SplFileInfo` instance. The file is excluded from the result set if the Closure returns false.

The filter() method includes a second optional argument to prune directories. If set to true, this method completely skips the excluded directories instead of traversing the entire file/directory structure and excluding them later. When using a closure, return false for the directories which you want to prune.

Pruning directories early can improve performance significantly depending on the file/directory hierarchy complexity and the number of excluded directories.

Sorting Results

Sort the results by name, extension, size or type (directories first, then files):

$finder->sortByName();
$finder->sortByCaseInsensitiveName();
$finder->sortByExtension();
$finder->sortBySize();
$finder->sortByType();

Tip

By default, the sortByName() method uses the :phpfunction:`strcmp` PHP function (e.g. file1.txt, file10.txt, file2.txt). Pass true as its argument to use PHP's natural sort order algorithm instead (e.g. file1.txt, file2.txt, file10.txt).

The sortByCaseInsensitiveName() method uses the case insensitive :phpfunction:`strcasecmp` PHP function. Pass true as its argument to use PHP's case insensitive natural sort order algorithm instead (i.e. the :phpfunction:`strnatcasecmp` PHP function)

Sort the files and directories by the last accessed, changed or modified time:

$finder->sortByAccessedTime();

$finder->sortByChangedTime();

$finder->sortByModifiedTime();

You can also define your own sorting algorithm with the sort() method:

$finder->sort(function (\SplFileInfo $a, \SplFileInfo $b): int {
    return strcmp($a->getRealPath(), $b->getRealPath());
});

You can reverse any sorting by using the reverseSorting() method:

// results will be sorted "Z to A" instead of the default "A to Z"
$finder->sortByName()->reverseSorting();

Note

Notice that the sort* methods need to get all matching elements to do their jobs. For large iterators, it is slow.

Transforming Results into Arrays

A Finder instance is an :phpclass:`IteratorAggregate` PHP class. So, in addition to iterating over the Finder results with foreach, you can also convert it to an array with the :phpfunction:`iterator_to_array` function, or get the number of items with :phpfunction:`iterator_count`.

If you call to the :method:`Symfony\\Component\\Finder\\Finder::in` method more than once to search through multiple locations, pass false as a second parameter to :phpfunction:`iterator_to_array` to avoid issues (a separate iterator is created for each location and, if you don't pass false to :phpfunction:`iterator_to_array`, keys of result sets are used and some of them might be duplicated and their values overwritten).

Reading Contents of Returned Files

The contents of returned files can be read with :method:`Symfony\\Component\\Finder\\SplFileInfo::getContents`:

use Symfony\Component\Finder\Finder;

$finder = new Finder();
$finder->files()->in(__DIR__);

foreach ($finder as $file) {
    $contents = $file->getContents();

    // ...
}