CODEWITHSUNDEEP
php
artfulrobot
artfulrobot

Reputation: 21437

How to output a massive file with PHP without running out of memory

I have the code below to output a big file, but it's falling over because PHP's memory use seems to grow and grow as the file is read:

  <?php
  // various header() calls etc.
  $stream = fopen($tarfile,'r');
  ob_end_flush();
  while (!feof($stream)) {
    $buf = fread($stream, 4096);
    print $buf;
    flush();
    unset($buf);
    $aa_usage = memory_get_usage(TRUE); // ← this keeps going up!
  }
  fclose($stream);

I had thought that by the combination of flush and unset the additional memory use would be limited to the 4k buffer, but I'm clearly wrong.

Upvotes: 8

Views: 1364

Answers (2)

Thiago Thomaz
Thiago Thomaz

Reputation: 1

You can try load only as much data as you need first, and if you load more data use the function: fseek()

Upvotes: 0

axiac
axiac

Reputation: 72376

If all you need is to output the content of a file then the right tool to do it is the PHP function readfile(). Replace all the code you posted with:

readfile($tarfile);

As the documentation says:

Note:

readfile() will not present any memory issues, even when sending large files, on its own. If you encounter an out of memory error ensure that output buffering is off with ob_get_level().

Upvotes: 4

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