Plugin Check failing: unlink() used instead of wp_delete_file() in Import_Base64_Image

[juanmaguitar]

Description

The Plugin Check GitHub Action is failing with the following errors:

Error: unlink() is discouraged. Use wp_delete_file() to delete a file.
Error: unlink() is discouraged. Use wp_delete_file() to delete a file.
Error: Process completed with exit code 1.

The issue is in includes/Abilities/Image/Import_Base64_Image.php where unlink() is being used to clean up temporary files. WordPress coding standards require using wp_delete_file() instead of the native PHP unlink() function.

Affected lines:

• Line 245: Error handling when writing to temp file fails
• Line 279: Cleanup of temp file after media_handle_sideload()

Step-by-step reproduction instructions

1. Push code to any branch that includes includes/Abilities/Image/Import_Base64_Image.php
2. Wait for GitHub Actions to run
3. Check the "Plugin Check Plugin" workflow
4. Observe the failure with the unlink() deprecation errors

Code snippet

Line 245:

if ( false === $bytes_written ) {
    @unlink( $temp_file ); // phpcs:ignore WordPress.PHP.NoSilencedErrors.Discouraged, Generic.PHP.NoSilencedErrors.Forbidden, WordPressVIPMinimum.Functions.RestrictedFunctions.file_ops_unlink
    return new WP_Error(
        'write_failed',
        esc_html__( 'Failed to write image data to temporary file.', 'ai' )
    );
}

Line 279:

// Clean up temp file if it still exists.
if ( file_exists( $temp_file ) ) {
    @unlink( $temp_file ); // phpcs:ignore WordPress.PHP.NoSilencedErrors.Discouraged, Generic.PHP.NoSilencedErrors.Forbidden, WordPressVIPMinimum.Functions.RestrictedFunctions.file_ops_unlink
}

Environment info

• Affected branches: develop and any branch based on it

The commit 36e080b that added the unlink() call belongs to the #134 PR that was merged on Dec 12, 2025

The "Plugin Check" GitHub Action was added on #139 that was also merged on Dec 12, 2025

It seems The "Plugin Check" GitHub Action has been failing since then.

Proposed Solution

Replace both unlink() calls with wp_delete_file():

Line 245:

if ( false === $bytes_written ) {
    wp_delete_file( $temp_file );
    return new WP_Error(
        'write_failed',
        esc_html__( 'Failed to write image data to temporary file.', 'ai' )
    );
}

Line 279:

// Clean up temp file if it still exists.
if ( file_exists( $temp_file ) ) {
    wp_delete_file( $temp_file );
}

This change will:

• Comply with WordPress coding standards
• Fix the Plugin Check CI failures
• Remove the need for phpcs:ignore comments on these lines

cc: @dkotter

[dkotter]

Note this has been fixed in #146 (see https://github.com/WordPress/ai/pull/146/changes#diff-7f1d11f747232872adc8fde3baae07025066e0bb16369705e6d5314d27e3afb9R272), though could pull that change out if we want a new PR to just address this.

[juanmaguitar]

though could pull that change out if we want a new PR to just address this.

That's probably the best path forward IMO. This "Plugin Check" workflow is failing in most of the PRs opened/updated in the last weeks.

I actually traced this after opening #159