How to make a file downloadable in PHP?

Send file with HTTPRange support (partial download):

function smartReadFile($location, $filename, $mimeType='application/octet-stream')
{ if(!file_exists($location))
  { header ("HTTP/1.0 404 Not Found");
    return;
  }

  $size=filesize($location);
  $time=date('r',filemtime($location));

  $fm=@fopen($location,'rb');
  if(!$fm)
  { header ("HTTP/1.0 505 Internal server error");
    return;
  }

  $begin=0;
  $end=$size;

  if(isset($_SERVER['HTTP_RANGE']))
  { if(preg_match('/bytes=\h*(\d+)-(\d*)[\D.*]?/i', $_SERVER['HTTP_RANGE'], $matches))
    { $begin=intval($matches[0]);
      if(!empty($matches[1]))
        $end=intval($matches[1]);
    }
  }

  if($begin>0||$end<$size)
    header('HTTP/1.0 206 Partial Content');
  else
    header('HTTP/1.0 200 OK');

  header("Content-Type: $mimeType");
  header('Cache-Control: public, must-revalidate, max-age=0');
  header('Pragma: no-cache');
  header('Accept-Ranges: bytes');
  header('Content-Length:'.($end-$begin));
  header("Content-Range: bytes $begin-$end/$size");
  header("Content-Disposition: inline; filename=$filename");
  header("Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary\n");
  header("Last-Modified: $time");
  header('Connection: close');

  $cur=$begin;
  fseek($fm,$begin,0);

  while(!feof($fm)&&$cur<$end&&(connection_status()==0))
  { print fread($fm,min(1024*16,$end-$cur));
    $cur+=1024*16;
  }
}
?>

function smartReadFile($location, $filename, $mimeType='application/octet-stream')
{ if(!file_exists($location))
  { header ("HTTP/1.0 404 Not Found");
    return;
  }0

function smartReadFile($location, $filename, $mimeType='application/octet-stream')
{ if(!file_exists($location))
  { header ("HTTP/1.0 404 Not Found");
    return;
  }1

function smartReadFile($location, $filename, $mimeType='application/octet-stream')
{ if(!file_exists($location))
  { header ("HTTP/1.0 404 Not Found");
    return;
  }2

Summary: in this tutorial, you will learn how to download a file in PHP using the readfile() function.

Introduction to the PHP readfile() function

The readfile() function reads data from a file and writes it to the output buffer.

Here’s the syntax of the readfile() function:

readfile ( 
    string $filename , 
    bool $use_include_path = false , 
    resource $context = ? 
) : int|false
Code language: PHP (php)

The readfile() function has the following parameters:

• $filename is the path to the file.
• $use_include_path if set to true, the function will search for the file in the include path.

• <?php
  
  $filename = 'readme.pdf';
  
  if (file_exists($filename)) {
  	header('Content-Description: File Transfer');
  	header('Content-Type: application/octet-stream');
  	header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="' . basename($filename) . '"');
  	header('Expires: 0');
  	header('Cache-Control: must-revalidate');
  	header('Pragma: public');
  	header('Content-Length: ' . filesize($filename));
  	readfile($filename);
  	exit;
  }
  Code language: HTML, XML (xml)

  0 specifies the stream context.

The readfile() function returns the number of bytes if it successfully reads data from the file, or

<?php

$filename = 'readme.pdf';

if (file_exists($filename)) {
	header('Content-Description: File Transfer');
	header('Content-Type: application/octet-stream');
	header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="' . basename($filename) . '"');
	header('Expires: 0');
	header('Cache-Control: must-revalidate');
	header('Pragma: public');
	header('Content-Length: ' . filesize($filename));
	readfile($filename);
	exit;
}
Code language: HTML, XML (xml)

PHP download file example

The following example shows how to download the

<?php

$filename = 'readme.pdf';

if (file_exists($filename)) {
	header('Content-Description: File Transfer');
	header('Content-Type: application/octet-stream');
	header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="' . basename($filename) . '"');
	header('Expires: 0');
	header('Cache-Control: must-revalidate');
	header('Pragma: public');
	header('Content-Length: ' . filesize($filename));
	readfile($filename);
	exit;
}
Code language: HTML, XML (xml)

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