Question

Question about this helper http://codeigniter.com/user_guide/helpers/download_helper.html

If, for example, program.exe weights 4 GB, will it take a lot of PHP memory for reading and delivering that file?

$data = file_get_contents("/path/to/program.exe"); // Read the file's contents
$name = 'software.exe';

force_download($name, $data);

Answer 1

force_download function just set the proper HTTP headers to make the client’s browser download the file. So, it won’t open the file, just pass it’s URL to the client.

Check the helper source code, if you need: https://bitbucket.org/ellislab/codeigniter-reactor/src/31b5c1dcf2ed/system/helpers/download_helper.php

Edit: I’d sugest creating your own version of the helper, and, instead of using strlen to get the file size, use the php function filesize, which takes only the file name as argument and returns the size in bytes.

More info, at http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.filesize.php