PHP readfile vs. file_get_contents

Question

I have used following code to generate zip

// push to download the zip
header('Content-type: application/zip');
header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="'.$zip_name.'"');
readfile($zip_name);

this code works fine but for unknown reasons was not working until I tried

// push to download the zip
header('Content-type: application/zip');
header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="'.$zip_name.'"');
echo file_get_contents($zip_name);

I am curious about finding what is happening in both the cases

What does "not working" means? Have you tried setting error reporting to the appropriate value and read any error / warning messages? — Jesse, Nov 20 '13 at 11:55
@Shankar yes file_get_contents worked the first time and so on — justnajm, Nov 20 '13 at 11:57
possible duplicate of [file\_get\_contents or readfile for displaying filesystyem image](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/909672/file-get-contents-or-readfile-for-displaying-filesystyem-image) — Damodaran, Nov 20 '13 at 11:58
My observation is that readfile was trying to throw file while it was generating, but file_get_contents wait till it get genrated successfully. — justnajm, Nov 20 '13 at 12:49

score 83 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 20 '13 at 11:55

83

Readfile will read the file directly into the output buffer, and file_get_contents will load the file into memory, when you echo the result the data is copied from memory to the output buffer effectively using 2 times the memory of readfile.

answered Nov 20 '13 at 11:55

Jesper Blaase

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Yes this is what my observation is that readfile was trying to throw file while it was generating, but file_get_contents wait till it get genrated successfully. – justnajm Nov 20 '13 at 12:01

PHP readfile vs. file_get_contents

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