Deleting a File using php/codeigniter

you can use the "file helper" in codeigniter. http://codeigniter.com/user_guide/helpers/file_helper.html and like this : $this->load->helper("file"); delete_files($path); Late Edit: delete_filesmethod uses a path to wipe out all of its contents via unlink() and same you can do within CI. Like this: unlink($path); a valid path. example : $path_file = './riskv2-assets/captcha/'; delete_files($path_file);