fread
(PHP 3, PHP 4 )
fread -- Binary-safe file read
Description
string fread ( resource handle, int length)
fread() reads up to length bytes from the file pointer referenced
by handle. Reading stops when length bytes have been read,
EOF (end of file) is reached, or (for network streams) when
a packet becomes available, whichever comes first.
<?php
// get contents of a file into a string
$filename = "/usr/local/something.txt";
$handle = fopen($filename, "r");
$contents = fread($handle, filesize($filename));
fclose($handle);
?>
Warning
On systems which differentiate between binary and text files
(i.e. Windows) the file must be opened with 'b' included
in fopen() mode parameter.
<?php
$filename = "c:\\files\\somepic.gif";
$handle = fopen($filename, "rb");
$contents = fread($handle, filesize($filename));
fclose($handle);
?>
Warning
When reading from network streams or pipes, such as those
returned when reading remote files or from popen() and fsockopen(),
reading will stop after a packet is available. This means
that you should collect the data together in chunks as shown
in the example below.
<?php
$handle = fopen("http://www.example.com/", "rb");
$contents = '';
while (!feof($handle)) {
$contents .= fread($handle, 8192);
}
fclose($handle);
?>
Note: If you just want to get the contents of a file into
a string, use file_get_contents() as it has much better
performance than the code above.
See also fwrite(), fopen(), fsockopen(), popen(), fgets(),
fgetss(), fscanf(), file(), and fpassthru().
