Download PHP script instead of executing it

Question

I have a downloads directory on a website where I store a bunch of different files for people to download (zip, exe, java, php, etc). The problem is that my website is written in PHP, so the web server, Apache, tries to execute the scripts instead of letting people download them. Without having access to Apache config (I'm on shared hosting), what is the easiest way to prevent Apache from executing scripts in a single directory?

I tried using mod_mime unsuccessfully. AddType doesn't work because (I'm guessing) a MIME type is already associated with PHP scripts. ForceType doesn't work because I store different types of files in the directory. Are there any other options?

Answer 1

If you have sufficient permissions for that, putting the following line in a .htaccess file in the directory in which you don't want PHP script to be executed might do the trick :

php_flag engine off

(Just tested on my webserver, and I got the source of a PHP script -- which had not been executed)