PHP Unlink doesn't delete the file on Windows machine

Question

when I was using a Mac and MAMP the command worked fine but after moving the source code on Windows 10 and XAMPP now the following script doesn't delete the file but only move a copy of the file inside a folder (exported_files) and renaming the new file.

<?php
    session_start();
    error_reporting(0);

if (isset($_POST['ok']) && ($_POST['ok'] == 1))
{
    //$arrayRicevuto = implode(" ",$arrayRicevuto);
    if (!isset($_SESSION['countRows']) && empty($_SESSION['countRows']))
    {
        $_SESSION['countRows'] = $_POST['countRows'];
    }

    $data = date("dmY");

    $filename = "EstrazioneParziale_del_" . $data;

    $estensione = ".csv";

    $fileOpen = fopen($filename.$estensione, "a") or die("Impossibile aprire il file");

    foreach ($_POST['arrayFiltrato'] as $fields) {

        fputcsv($fileOpen, $fields);

    }

    fclose($fileOpen);

    $_SESSION['countRows']--;

    if ($_SESSION['countRows'] == 0)
    {
        $finalData = date("h-i-s");

        $directory="exported_files/";

        copy($filename.$estensione, $directory.$_SESSION['email']."_".$filename.$finalData.$estensione);

        unlink('$filename.$estensione');

        unset($_SESSION['countRows']);

        echo $directory.$_SESSION['email']."_".$filename.$finalData.$estensione;

    }

} else {
    echo "Errore! ";
}

?>

Can somebody give me a suggestion?

Many thanks in advance! :)

Answer 1

First problem: Don't use single quotes around variables as it will take the variable as a literal string instead of returning you its value. For example:

<?php

$test = "hello";

echo '$test'; // This will print $test
echo "$test"; // This will print hello

?>

In unlink();, you don't have to use quotes at all when using a variable.

Sometimes the system is unable to find the location of the file you're trying to delete with unlink(). In those cases, you can use realpath(); as it will return the absolute path towards the file you're trying to delete:

unlink(realpath($filename.$estensione));