reading large file from remote server using php script

Question

I am trying to read large files lets say illustrator file or photoshop file using cron job in my system. Files size varies from 20 mb - 300 mb

I have been using some function but it break in middle while reading. So i wanted to have a fresh opinion.

Amount these function

• file_get_contents
• readfile
• curl

which is most effective in terms of

• consistency (should not break while reading file)
• speed
• resource uses

if there is more then two cron job, does it impact over all server performance.

Please share best practice code.

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

Use cURL. The file functions have been deprecated in favor of cURL to open remote files. It's not only faster, but also more reliable¹ (you are less likely to experience timeouts).

If your script times out or runs out of memory anyways, you'll want to increase the execution time and memory limits (max_execution_time and memory_limit).

Other notes:

• readfile() reads a file and prints it to the output buffer; it's no the same thing as file_get_contents().
• If you compile curl with --with-curlwrappers then when you do file_get_contents() it will use cURL instead of the fopen() functions.

¹ Citation needed.