[RESOLVED] file_get_contents config

rayzun

I need to find out what my host has done, they are not being open.

My host server recently did a re-install OS.
using Linux // Apache version 1.3.33 (Unix) ...
PHP version 4.3.11

During this time had I was just starting to upgrade a hosting account with many addon domains to a reseller account. After the server finally was online, I had several issues with PHP code in my webpages.

Basically php includes that use a domain were taking at 5 seconds extra to parse.
ex. include 'http://domain.com/coin.txt'

while using paths was the answer and now works great
ex. include '/home/yupp/public_html/ddd123/coin.txt'

BUT
this issue has started with another function
file_get_contents

  $data = file_get_contents("http://domain.com/coin.txt"); 
  echo "$data";

For this function the file is on another server. Im not able to use paths just http://

Any help, or ideas why this could be such a issue and any reason for my host to maybe place a limit on such functions???

dalecosp

Check php.ini (or the output of [man]phpinfo()[/man]) for the setting of allow_url_fopen.

rayzun

well this says:
allow_url_fopen On On

drew010

rayzun wrote:
For this function the file is on another server. Im not able to use paths just http://

maybe im misunderstanding this, but the file you want to file_get_contents of is on another server? then you have to use http, paths only access files on the local harddrive.

rayzun

Sorry, I was writing a discription with the intent that I knew the difference....

i have a test page:
http://yothat.info/fileget.php

This page shows my server being the 5 second compared to the same script on another server, using a iframe .
$data = file_get_contents("http://yothat.info/fileget2.php");
echo "$data\n";

bpat1434

file_get_contents works better if it's on the local server. If you want to quickly read the contents on an external server, you need to first use fopen($url, "r"). This is in the PHP manual for file_get_contents.

Basically, your code might be:

<?php

$url = 'http://www.domain.com/sometext.txt';

$hndl = fopen($url, "r"); // Open the file for Reading
$contents = file_get_contents($url);
fclose($hndl);

?>

PHP Manual wrote:
Tip: You can use a URL as a filename with this function if the fopen wrappers have been enabled.

~Brett

rayzun

As seen on the tesp page:
http://yothat.info/fileget.php

  fopen($url, "r") \\ adds another ten seconds.

drew010

if you do

<?php

$url = 'http://www.domain.com/sometext.txt';

$hndl = fopen($url, "r"); // Open the file for Reading
$contents = file_get_contents($url);
fclose($hndl);

?>

you are opening the file two times, and only using one.
fopen should use fgets to grab the contents, file get contents is independent of anything

<?php
//use either

$data = '';
$fp = fopen($url, 'r');
if ($fp) {
  while (!feof($fp)) {
    $data .= fgets($fp);
  }
  fclose($fp);
}

// OR use

$data = file_get_contents($url);

?>

the two are really similar, i beleive file_get_contets just does the fopen and fgets stuff all for you.

maybe this is a dns issue on the part of the host.
if you can grab shell access see how long it takes to use something like wget to connect and download a remote file, try ping and tracert to see how long those take to complete.

php really just uses the os's underlying socket functions and dns functions to get contents from remote hosts.

Weedpacket

The fact that it takes so much longer to fopen and file_get_contents seems to confirm drew010's suspicions: it's just taking a long time for the remote host to respond.

bpat1434

Well the problem is not the server, nor the PHP code. It's just how PHP is. The server may have a slow or bogged down connection so it can't read the websites as fast. Here's another benchmark to look at:

My Version

~Brett

rayzun

thanks all
It just does not make sense to me..

a five second delay of sorts. on requests only with
'http'

yet my webpages which have alot of php, images, MySQL queries are lightning fast.

##
My host just let every buddy know that SHELL access is denied to everyone, unless they first validate who they are with some new validation routine. Upload a scan of drivers, passport or other picture, then they will allow SHELL. Would this be of any coincidence??

##
another thought

My main account is a reseller, within my reseller I have one account with a seperate dedicate IP.

drew010

out of curiousity what is the host?

rayzun

d e a s o f t

I got something to add

I tried the nameserver IP instead of using my domain name and it works fast like it should.
So it is definetely a nameserver issue. No idea what should I do???