[RESOLVED] Reading a file from file system

[jdc44]

Greetings all--
I need to read a pdf file from our file system and then write it to an oracle database table into a blob field.

I know most of this, but could use a bit of help on the reading the file from the file system. I've written and read files to and from the file system before. But, since I'm going to upload this to a db table as a blob, what is the best php function to use to get the file from the system?

Should I use $file=file(....), or $file=get_file_contents(...) or $file=fread(...)??

file() returns an array - each element of the array is a line in the file. I don't think I want this one.
get_file_contents() returns a string.

fread() reads a string ??

I'm thinking fread(), but I'm not sure.

Thanks for any help!

[laserlight]

You probably should use [man]file_get_contents/man. It reads in the file in binary mode by default.

[jdc44]

Thanks,
I just ran into a friend who is an advanced programmer in php. He echo'd your thoughts.

Cheers!