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(PHP 3, PHP 4, PHP 5)

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);
?>

Related Function(s)

fopen()

popen()

fsockopen()

file_get_contents()

fwrite()

fgets()

fgetss()

fscanf()

file()

fpassthru()