How can I retrieve the full directory tree using SPL?

By default, the RecursiveIteratorIterator will use LEAVES_ONLY for the second argument to __construct. This means it will return files only. If you want to include files and directories (at least that's what I'd consider a full directory tree), you'd have to do:

$iterator = new RecursiveIteratorIterator( new RecursiveDirectoryIterator($path), RecursiveIteratorIterator::SELF_FIRST ); 

and then you can foreach over it. If you want to return the directory tree instead of outputting it, you can store it in an array, e.g.

foreach ($iterator as $fileObject) { $files[] = $fileObject; // or if you only want the filenames $files[] = $fileObject->getPathname(); } 

You can also create the array of $fileObjects without the foreach by doing:

$files[] = iterator_to_array($iterator); 

If you only want directories returned, foreach over the $iterator like this:

foreach ($iterator as $fileObject) { if ($fileObject->isDir()) { $files[] = $fileObject; } }