Welcome to a tutorial on how to download files with PHP CURL. Need to fetch a file from another server with PHP CURL? Yes, it is possible.
To download a file with PHP CURL, simply create a file handler with fopen()
and pass it into the CURL options.
$fh = fopen("FILE", "w");
$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, "HTTP://SITE.COM/FILE");
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FILE, $fh);
curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);
That should cover the basics, but let us walk through a few more examples in this guide – Read on!
TABLE OF CONTENTS
DOWNLOAD & NOTES
Here is the download link to the example code, so you don’t have to copy-paste everything.
EXAMPLE CODE DOWNLOAD
Just click on “download zip” or do a git clone. I have released it under the MIT license, so feel free to build on top of it or use it in your own project.
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PHP CURL FILE DOWNLOAD
All right, let us now get into the examples of downloading files with PHP CURL.
TUTORIAL VIDEO
EXAMPLE 1) USING CURL TO DOWNLOAD FILES
<?php
// (A) SETTINGS
set_time_limit(0); // no script timeout
$source = "http://localhost/README.txt"; // target file to download
$destination = "saved.txt"; // save to this file
$timeout = 30; // 30 seconds curl timeout
// (B) FILE HANDLER
$fh = fopen($destination, "w") or exit("Error opening $destination");
// (C) CURL FETCH & SAVE
// (C1) CURL INIT
$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $source);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FILE, $fh);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, $timeout);
// (C2) CURL EXEC
// note: http status code 200 = ok
curl_exec($ch);
if (curl_errno($ch)) { echo curl_error($ch); }
else {
$status = curl_getinfo($ch);
// print_r($status);
echo $status["http_code"] == 200 ? "OK" : "ERROR - " . $status["http_code"] ;
}
// (C3) CLOSE CURL & FILE
curl_close($ch);
fclose($fh);
Yes, this is practically just an “improved version” of the introduction snippet.
- A bunch of settings, where to download the file from, where to save it to.
- Creating an “empty file” on the local server.
- Use CURL to download and save the specified source.
EXAMPLE 2) DOWNLOADING LARGE FILES
<?php
// (A) SETTINGS
set_time_limit(0); // no script timeout
$source = "http://localhost/README.txt"; // target file to download
$destination = "saved.txt"; // save to this file
$block = 4096; // read 4096 bytes per block
// (B) FILE HANDLERS
$sh = fopen($source, "rb") or exit("ERROR opening $source");
$dh = fopen($destination, "w") or exit("ERROR opening $destination");
// (C) DOWNLOAD, BLOCK-BY-BLOCK
while (!feof($sh)) {
if (fwrite($dh, fread($sh, $block)) === false) { echo "FWRITE ERROR."; }
flush();
}
// (D) DONE!
echo "DONE.";
fclose($sh);
fclose($dh);
If you are dealing with very large files, I will recommend dropping CURL and just use fopen() fwrite() fread()
instead – We can limit the number of bytes fread()
can read at once, to prevent an “out-of-memory” error.
EXAMPLE 3) SUPER SIMPLE DOWNLOAD
<?php
$source = "http://localhost/README.txt";
$destination = "saved.txt";
file_put_contents($destination, file_get_contents($source));
echo "OK";
For you guys who just want a really simple file download… We don’t actually even need CURL. Just file_put_contents()
and file_get_contents()
.
EXTRAS
That’s all for the tutorial, and here is a small section on some extras and links that may be useful to you.
LINKS & REFERENCES
- CURL – PHP
- fopen – PHP
- How To Write & Append To Files In PHP – Code Boxx
THE END
Thank you for reading, and we have come to the end. I hope that it has helped you to better understand, and if you want to share anything with this guide, please feel free to comment below. Good luck and happy coding!