file_get_contents not working for local files

Question

I recently upgraded my XAMPP from PHP 5.2 to 5.3.1

I seem to be having a problem with file_get_contents().

I can use the function to get something like "http://www.google.com", but it times out when I use it on a domain I have setup locally e.g. "http://localhost/my_dir/my_css_file.css".

I'm not really sure what the problem is. If it's a bug, is there a viable alternative?

Kindly advise.

Answer 1

Try to use include() instead of file_get_contents().

<?php include($_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] . "/my_dir/my_css_file.css"); ?>

or

<?php include($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . "/my_dir/my_css_file.css"); ?>

---

Updates corresponding your comments:

$string = get_include_contents('somefile.php');

function get_include_contents($filename) {
    if (is_file($filename)) {
        ob_start();
        include $filename;
        $contents = ob_get_contents();
        ob_end_clean();
        return $contents;
    }
    return false;
}

This will get file data into variable $string.

Answer 2

Any chance you're on a Windows system? There is a bug in a combination of Windows, file_get_contents and localhost which is not going to be fixed. See Bug 38826 and Bug 40881

Try using 127.0.0.1 instead of localhost or set up any different domain name. Then you should get it working.