open remote file and send headers

peterjoel

I would like to open a remote file via HTTP. Is it possible to customise the HTTP headers sent in the request using, for example, fopen?

epp_b

I don't see why you should need to do anything with headers.

$file = fopen("remotefile.ext", "a");
fwrite($file, $data_to_write);
fclose($file);

It's as simple as that...almost. The file you are writing to MUST either be owned by the user on the server that PHP is given ownership permissions to (on *nix, usually HTTPD), or must be CHMOD'd to 607 or higher (although I would advise to use the first solution).

peterjoel

The reason is that I would like to request a file from PHP, but make it appear that the file was requested by a browser.

suntra

You would have to use sockets !

Example :

<?php
$fp = fsockopen("www.php.net", 80, &$errno, &$errstr, 30);
if(!$fp) {
	echo "$errstr ($errno)<br>\n";
} else {
	fputs($fp,"GET / HTTP/1.0\n\n"); // <== THIS IS A HEADER.
	while(!feof($fp)) {
		echo fgets($fp,128);
	}
	fclose($fp);
}
?>

bobthedog

Or you could use the CURL library extension to PHP.

Lets you connect to servers via http or https and set headers as you require.