How to force file download with PHP

Question

I want to require a file to be downloaded upon the user visiting a web page with PHP. I think it has something to do with file_get_contents, but am not sure how to execute it.

$url = "http://example.com/go.exe";

After downloading a file with header(location) it is not redirecting to another page. It just stops.

Answer 1

Read the docs about built-in PHP function readfile

$file_url = 'http://www.myremoteserver.com/file.exe';
header('Content-Type: application/octet-stream');
header("Content-Transfer-Encoding: Binary"); 
header("Content-disposition: attachment; filename="" . basename($file_url) . """); 
readfile($file_url); 

Also make sure to add proper content type based on your file application/zip, application/pdf etc. - but only if you do not want to trigger the save-as dialog.