What are the best practices for handling long downloads in PHP to avoid script timeouts?

When handling long downloads in PHP, it is important to increase the script execution time limit and disable output buffering to prevent timeouts. Additionally, using functions like set_time_limit() and flush() can help keep the connection alive during the download process. 

// Increase script execution time limit
set_time_limit(0);

// Disable output buffering
ini_set('output_buffering', 'off');
ini_set('zlib.output_compression', false);

// Output headers to start the download
header('Content-Type: application/octet-stream');
header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="file.zip"');

// Output file contents
readfile('path/to/file.zip');

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