Delete image file from directory in PHP on remote server and localhost

I’m trying to figure out, how to delete correctly image file with summernote from directory folder on remote server and localhost.

So, image successfully uploaded from summernote editor and located by directory path:

C:/xampp/htdocs/user/blog/uploads/img-uploads/154_20220702.png

and C:xampphtdocsuserblogadmineditor-delete.php code:

<?php
    $src  = $_POST['src']; 
    $path = "../uploads/img-uploads/";
    $dir = basename($path);
    $file_name = str_replace($dir, '', $src);
    unlink($file_name);
    if ($file_name) {          
        echo 'File Delete Successfully';
    }
?>

or

$src  = $_POST['src'];
$dir = "../uploads/img-uploads/";
$file_name = str_replace($dir, '', $src);
unlink($file_name);
if ($file_name) {
    echo 'File Delete Successfully';
}

Warning: unlink(): http does not allow unlinking in C:xampphtdocsuserblogadmineditor-delete.php

$src  = $_POST['src'];
$dir = "../uploads/img-uploads/";
$file_name = str_replace($dir, '', $src);
unlink($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . $file_name);
if ($file_name) {
    echo 'File Delete Successfully';
} 

Localhost correct path must be C:/xampp/htdocs/blog/uploads/img-uploads/154_20220702.png, but with unlink($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] .'/'. $file_name); the path contains extra http://localhost/user/ in C:/xampp/htdocs/http://localhost/user/blog/uploads/img-uploads/154_20220702.png

Warning: unlink(C:/xampp/htdocshttp://localhost/user/blog/uploads/img-uploads/154_20220702.png): No such file or directory in C:xampphtdocsuserblogadmineditor-delete.php

File Delete Successfully

jquery-3.6.0.min.js:5177 XHR finished loading: POST “http://localhost/user/blog/admin/editor-delete.php”.

Answer

I cannot completely test this but I think you could change the editor-delete.php script like this. Judging by the paths cited in the question you need to construct the absolute path by leaving the admin directory traversing the file structure into uploads/img-uploads so chdir and getcwd are two useful functions for this. The notes in the code show what I mean.

The piece of code that displays the File Delete Successfully is based upon a variable which will always be true (effectively) rather than the more meaningful result from the actual unlink operation so you should use that returned value to fork your program logic.

<?php

    /* 
        C:xampphtdocsuserblogadmineditor-delete.php
        
        so:
        
        chdir('../') leads to C:xampphtdocsuserblog
        chdir('../uploads/img-uploads') should lead to C:xampphtdocsuserbloguploadsimg-uploads
    */
    
    
    if( isset( $_POST['src'] ) ){
    
        # Change working directory for current script operations
        # - go up one level out of "admin" and into the uploads folder.
        
        chdir('../uploads/img-uploads');
        
        
        # default value for use later in output message
        $status=false;
        
        # construct the full path to local file using getcwd() to find working directory.
        $path=sprintf( '%s/%s', getcwd(), basename( $_POST['src'] ) );
        
        # if the file exists - delete it or warn ( inspect the path! )
        if( file_exists( $path ) )$status=@unlink( $path );
        else exit( sprintf( 'Unable to find file: "%s"', $path ) );
        
        # prevent cached results tainting file checks
        clearstatcache();
        
        
        echo $status ? 'File deleted successfully' : 'Sorry, that file could not be deleted';
    }
?>