Is it necessary to use fopen in binary mode when reading a binary file in PHP?

When reading a binary file in PHP, it is not necessary to use fopen in binary mode ('rb') as PHP will automatically handle reading binary files correctly. However, using binary mode can help ensure that the file is read correctly across different platforms and prevent any unexpected character conversions. 

$filename = 'binaryfile.dat';
$file = fopen($filename, 'rb');
if ($file) {
    while (!feof($file)) {
        $data = fread($file, 1024);
        // Process the binary data here
    }
    fclose($file);
}

Keywords

fopen binary mode reading binary file PHP

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