Download File to server from URL

php http stream download

646,581

Solution 1

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.)

Solution 2

private function downloadFile($url, $path)
{
    $newfname = $path;
    $file = fopen ($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);
    }
}

Solution 3

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.

Solution 4

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);
        $httpcode = curl_getinfo($ch, CURLINFO_HTTP_CODE);
        curl_close($ch);
        return $httpcode;
    }
}

Solution 5

Create a folder called "downloads" in destination server
Save [this code] into .php file and run in destination server

Downloader :

<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>

View more solutions

646,581

Author by

xaav

Updated on July 08, 2022

Comments

xaav almost 2 years
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.
xaav over 13 years

Normally, this would be fine, but I have this code in a web app, so I cant be sure users will have cURL installed. However, I did give this a vote up.
PleaseStand over 13 years

That wouldn't be my first choice. If allow_fopen_url Off is set in php.ini (good idea for security), your script would be broken.
user3167101 over 13 years

@idealmachine I think file_get_contents() would not work either if that were the case (see OP).
user3167101 over 13 years

@Geoff is it a distributed web app? Because if you control the hosting, then it doesn't matter about your users (cURL is a library on your server).
xaav over 13 years

No. I do not control hosting. It is a distributed web app that anyone could have.
user3167101 over 13 years

@geoff I was specific, I mentioned the function you wanted. What you may have wanted was someone to write the code for you - but I'm sure you learned something doing it yourself. Also, if we are going to comment on each other's SO interactions - please accept some more answers :)
vvMINOvv over 12 years

thank's for your snippit, but would you be able to explain your code @xaav? I'm not exactly brilliant at php. What is 1024*8 for ? Thank's again.
David Bélanger almost 12 years

@wMINOw The length of the line.
Mangirdas Skripka almost 12 years

Curl might be missing. But almost all shared hosting companies have CURL installed by default. I mean, I haven't seen one that doesn't.
Doktor J over 11 years

Specifically, it means to read up to 8KB at a time (1024 bytes per KB * 8) since the parameter is in bytes. As long as the line is <= 8KB, it will read the entire line at once.
hakre about 11 years

@alex: Please see the edit, feel free to incorporate. let me know when I can remove this comment here then.
user3167101 about 11 years

@hakre Thanks, much appreciated. I'll make it flow a bit easier. :)
Wayne Weibel over 10 years

The 'b' flag should also be used in most cases with fopen; prevents adverse effects to images and other non plain text files.
GunJack over 10 years

Why is not this the best answer?
Tommix about 10 years

your answer is very simple and good working, helped me where cURL failed to get file, this worked. Thanks :)
Akhilesh over 9 years

This should be the best answer.
Adam Swinden over 9 years

How do you handle errors with this approach? What if a 404 is returned or the connection is interrupted or times out?
The Bumpaster over 8 years

That would be useful, but if 404 goes through you would be downloading anything, and you can always run a search check for that file (some logic) if (!myfile) -> break;
user3167101 over 8 years

You might want to explain what this actually does.
Gustavo about 8 years

As from my tests, you can't assign to CURLOPT_FILE a file path directly. It has to be a file handler. First, open the file with $fh = fopen('/path/to/download/the/file/to.zip', 'w'); and close with fclose($fh); after curl_close($ch);. And set CURLOPT_FILE => $fh
Sean the Bean about 8 years

This assumes the user wants a standalone script rather than a solution that will work within an existing PHP application, and I believe the latter is what the OP and most others are looking for. An explanation would also be helpful for people who want to understand the approach.
Dheeraj Thedijje almost 8 years

thanks this saved my 1GB of mobile data i was planning transfering file from one server to another, i could directly moved zip file instead of downloading and uploading to new server. :)
user9645 almost 8 years

This does not address the OP's problem of exceeding the PHP memory limit.
Tofeeq almost 8 years

Best way to download large files
SergeDirect over 7 years

Magnificently fast - you r true maestro!
NomanJaved over 7 years

sometimes the fopen failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.1 403 Forbidden show this error because of web crawling prevention how to resolve it? @<xaav> @<Ibrahim Azhar Armar>
Riffaz Starr about 7 years

whenever I try this always my transferred file size is 50816 but my file size is bigger than this.. 120MB.. Any idea why is this?
Oleg Abrazhaev almost 7 years

NomanJaved you need to do auth request on a login form first and reuse the same curl client (or at least it's headers and cookie) for all further requests.
Lorenz Meyer over 6 years

This does not answer the question, because the question is about writing on disk not to the output buffer.
Naveen DA over 6 years

How it downloads without CURL ?
Viktor Joras about 6 years

set_time_limit (24 * 60 * 60); has to be put inside a loop. It has no effect at the beginning of the script.
Kaspar L. Palgi over 5 years

Downloads 0KB empty file although the file is more than 17MB Skype main.db file. On PHP 5.4 also had to remove "private" from the beginning of the function.
Marco about 5 years

This solution was very nice for me, because I had to download a huge XML file which exceeds my PHP memory_limit if 1024M.
Valentine Shi about 5 years

This is pretty simple and straightforward. Quite useful for simpler cases where the files are small or the the environment is a local development.
BendaThierry.com almost 5 years

I will never never never set 777 as perms on a webserver, and I will kick off any webdeveloper whom has the bad idea to do that. Every time, everywhere. Be carefull ! You can not do that ! Think about security. Following OWASP rules is not enough. Having good thinking about simple things matters.
Pradeep Kumar almost 5 years

@ThierryB. Note: I've given local path. & this can be used in internal applications. Having good reading and understanding of question and answer matters. Think different scenarios. And this is not accepted/best answer. Every question has different answers with pros & cons in it.. Example for you to understand: Even Fibonacci have multiple unique solutions where only one will be best. Others will be used in different scenarios.
BendaThierry.com almost 5 years

Ok, but taking time to think about best practises and implement them inside secured places will give you a better understanding of concepts you must implement. Maybe if an intruder is inside your ($)home, doing some traps or building things the best way you can will give him some headaches ;)
PlayHardGoPro over 4 years

Would this approach be better than using curl?
Dhruv Thakkar almost 4 years

any idea for .xlsx files ? It's storing empty file with 0 byte memory .
Pacerier almost 4 years

How is this different/better from the answer with fopen?
Saurin Dashadia almost 4 years

How to download from this url: filehippo.com/download_mozilla-firefox-64/post_download
Saurin Dashadia almost 4 years

How to downlod from this url: filehippo.com/download_mozilla-firefox-64/post_download
webHasan over 3 years

@Netwons make sure wget available in your server.
Netwons over 3 years

wget available to system error ======> errorCode=1 SSL/TLS handshake failure: The TLS connection was non-properly terminated.
Netwons over 3 years

or error ======> Connecting to www.you.com (www.you.com)|178.79.180.188|:443... connected.
NomanJaved about 3 years

Note: The $path should include the name of the file you want to create. Example: $path = $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'].'/uploads/' . "test.mp3";