Save large files from php stdin

Question

Advise me the most optimal way to save large files from php stdin, please. iOS developer sends me large video content to server and i have to store it in to files.

I read the stdin thread with video data and write it to the file. For example, in this way:

$handle = fopen("php://input", "rb");    
while (!feof($handle)) {
      $http_raw_post_data .= fread($handle, 8192);
}

What function is better to use? file_get_contents or fread or something else?

Answer 1

If you use nginx as web server i want to recommend nginx upload module with possibility to resume upload.

Answer 2

Don't use file_get_contents because it would attempt to load all the content of the file into a string

FROM PHP DOC

file_get_contents() is the preferred way to read the contents of a file into a string. It will use memory mapping techniques if supported by your OS to enhance performance.

Am sure you just want to create the movie file on your server .. this is a more efficient way

$in = fopen("php://input", "rb");
$out = fopen('largefile.dat', 'w');

while ( ! feof($in) ) {
    fwrite($out, fread($in, 8192));
}

Answer 3

I agree with @hek2mgl that treating this as a multipart form upload would make most sense, but if you can't alter your input interface then you can use file_put_contents() on a stream instead of looping through the file yourself.

$handle = fopen("php://input", "rb");  
if (false === file_put_contents("outputfile.dat", $handle))
{
  // handle error
}
fclose($handle);

It's cleaner than iterating through the file, and it might be faster (I haven't tested).