this function recurrsively goes to a particular depth and stops after the depth is reached.

function read_path($root = '.', $depth = 1) {
        if($depth == 0) {
            return;
        }
        $last_letter  = $root[strlen($root)-1];
          $root  = ($last_letter == '\\' || $last_letter == '/') ? $root : $root.DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR;
          $files  = array('files'=>array(), 'dirs'=>array());
          if ($handle = opendir($root)) {
              while (false !== ($file = readdir($handle))) {
                if ($file == '.' || $file == '..') {
                      continue;
                }
                $file  = $root.$file;
                if (is_dir($file)) {
                      $directory_path = $file.DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR;
                    $files['dirs'][$directory_path]  = NULL;
                } elseif (is_file($file)) {
                    $files['files'][]  = $file;
                }
              }
              closedir($handle);
        }
          $done = [$root=>$files];
          foreach ($done[$root]['dirs'] as $key=>$value) {
              $done[$root]['dirs'][$key] = $this->read_path($key, $depth-1);
          }
          return $done[$root];
    }