Well, this one seems quite simple, and it is. All you have to do to download a file to your server is:
file_put_contents("Tmpfile.zip", file_get_contents("http://someurl/file.zip"));
Only there is one problem. What if you have a large file, like 100mb. Then, you will run out of memory, and not be able to download the file.
What I want is a way to write the file to the disk as I am downloading it. That way, I can download bigger files, without running into memory problems.
Since PHP 5.1.0, file_put_contents() supports writing piece-by-piece by passing a stream-handle as the $data parameter:
file_put_contents("Tmpfile.zip", fopen("http://someurl/file.zip", 'r'));
From the manual:
If data [that is the second argument] is a stream resource, the remaining buffer of that stream will be copied to the specified file. This is similar with using
stream_copy_to_stream().
(Thanks Hakre.)
Try using cURL
set_time_limit(0); // unlimited max execution time
$options = array(
CURLOPT_FILE => '/path/to/download/the/file/to.zip',
CURLOPT_TIMEOUT => 28800, // set this to 8 hours so we dont timeout on big files
CURLOPT_URL => 'http://remoteserver.com/path/to/big/file.zip',
);
$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt_array($ch, $options);
curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);
I'm not sure but I believe with the CURLOPT_FILE option it writes as it pulls the data, ie. not buffered.
prodigitalson's answer didn't work for me. I got missing fopen in CURLOPT_FILE more details.
This worked for me, including local urls:
function downloadUrlToFile($url, $outFileName)
{
if(is_file($url)) {
copy($url, $outFileName);
} else {
$options = array(
CURLOPT_FILE => fopen($outFileName, 'w'),
CURLOPT_TIMEOUT => 28800, // set this to 8 hours so we dont timeout on big files
CURLOPT_URL => $url
);
$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt_array($ch, $options);
curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);
}
}
.php file and run in destination server<html>
<form method="post">
<input name="url" size="50" />
<input name="submit" type="submit" />
</form>
<?php
// maximum execution time in seconds
set_time_limit (24 * 60 * 60);
if (!isset($_POST['submit'])) die();
// folder to save downloaded files to. must end with slash
$destination_folder = 'downloads/';
$url = $_POST['url'];
$newfname = $destination_folder . basename($url);
$file = fopen ($url, "rb");
if ($file) {
$newf = fopen ($newfname, "wb");
if ($newf)
while(!feof($file)) {
fwrite($newf, fread($file, 1024 * 8 ), 1024 * 8 );
}
}
if ($file) {
fclose($file);
}
if ($newf) {
fclose($newf);
}
?>
</html>
There are 3 ways:
You can find examples from here.
Use a simple method in php copy()
copy($source_url, $local_path_with_file_name);
Note: if the destination file already exists, it will be overwritten
Note: You need to set permission 777 for the destination folder. Use this method when you are downloading to your local machine.
Special Note: 777 is a permission in Unix based system with full read/write/execute permission to owner, group and everyone. In general we give this permission to assets which are not much needed to be hidden from public on a web server. Example: images folder.
I use this to download file
function cURLcheckBasicFunctions()
{
if( !function_exists("curl_init") &&
!function_exists("curl_setopt") &&
!function_exists("curl_exec") &&
!function_exists("curl_close") ) return false;
else return true;
}
/*
* Returns string status information.
* Can be changed to int or bool return types.
*/
function cURLdownload($url, $file)
{
if( !cURLcheckBasicFunctions() ) return "UNAVAILABLE: cURL Basic Functions";
$ch = curl_init();
if($ch)
{
$fp = fopen($file, "w");
if($fp)
{
if( !curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url) )
{
fclose($fp); // to match fopen()
curl_close($ch); // to match curl_init()
return "FAIL: curl_setopt(CURLOPT_URL)";
}
if ((!ini_get('open_basedir') && !ini_get('safe_mode')) || $redirects < 1) {
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_USERAGENT, '"Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.8.1.11) Gecko/20071204 Ubuntu/7.10 (gutsy) Firefox/2.0.0.11');
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
//curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_REFERER, 'http://domain.com/');
if( !curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, $curlopt_header)) return "FAIL: curl_setopt(CURLOPT_HEADER)";
if( !curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, $redirects > 0)) return "FAIL: curl_setopt(CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION)";
if( !curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FILE, $fp) ) return "FAIL: curl_setopt(CURLOPT_FILE)";
if( !curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_MAXREDIRS, $redirects) ) return "FAIL: curl_setopt(CURLOPT_MAXREDIRS)";
return curl_exec($ch);
} else {
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_USERAGENT, '"Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.8.1.11) Gecko/20071204 Ubuntu/7.10 (gutsy) Firefox/2.0.0.11');
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
//curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_REFERER, 'http://domain.com/');
if( !curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, false)) return "FAIL: curl_setopt(CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION)";
if( !curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FILE, $fp) ) return "FAIL: curl_setopt(CURLOPT_FILE)";
if( !curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, true)) return "FAIL: curl_setopt(CURLOPT_HEADER)";
if( !curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true)) return "FAIL: curl_setopt(CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER)";
if( !curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FORBID_REUSE, false)) return "FAIL: curl_setopt(CURLOPT_FORBID_REUSE)";
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_USERAGENT, '"Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.8.1.11) Gecko/20071204 Ubuntu/7.10 (gutsy) Firefox/2.0.0.11');
}
// if( !curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, true) ) return "FAIL: curl_setopt(CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION)";
// if( !curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FILE, $fp) ) return "FAIL: curl_setopt(CURLOPT_FILE)";
// if( !curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, 0) ) return "FAIL: curl_setopt(CURLOPT_HEADER)";
if( !curl_exec($ch) ) return "FAIL: curl_exec()";
curl_close($ch);
fclose($fp);
return "SUCCESS: $file [$url]";
}
else return "FAIL: fopen()";
}
else return "FAIL: curl_init()";
}
