how to handle an uploaded image without storing it and storing it after processing it

[marcnyc]

Hello. I have read the Chapter 18. Handling file uploads of the manual so I know how to upload a file to the server. The thing is, I want to resize the file before storing it on the server, hence my question:

How do I access (without storing it) the file I just uploaded before storing it, so that I can process it (resize it) and THEN store it when it's already resized?

Is this possible or do I have to store the originally uploaded file, and then in some way that I'll find out through the manual, open it, resize it, copy it and delete the originally uploaded one?

It is my understanding that the $_FILES values are deleted as soon as the upload is finished, which leads me to think I can't use those values to process/resize the image, is this a correct assumption?

[naomi385]

When a file is uploaded, the web server automatically creates a temporary file for it. The name of this temporary file is

$_FILES[$input_name]['tmp_name']

where $input_name is the name of the HTML file upload element.

You can do whatever processing you need on this temporary file, and then save a copy in a permanent location. You should probably remember to delete the temporary file when you're done, but most servers will delete old temporary files after a while anyway.