replacing directory references at beginning of file name

Could someone please send me the code for doing the above? I have the book, "Mastering Regex, blah blah", but I don't have time to read it until the end of the school quarter." I'd like to remove the following chars from the beginning of a string: '$', '\', '/', and '.' . I plan on doing it like so: while( ereg_replace( $dir_remove_patt, "", $file_name) ){;} I need the value for $dir_remove_patt, and I would be most grateful. I'm a stubborn kind of guy, and I don't usually ask for direct help; I'm not a moocher of code. But I could use some help, thanks :-)