What are the limitations of using readfile() in PHP for downloading multiple files, and are there alternative methods that can be more efficient?

Using readfile() in PHP for downloading multiple files can be inefficient as it reads the entire file into memory before outputting it, which can lead to memory issues when dealing with large files or a large number of files. An alternative method is to use fopen(), fread(), and fwrite() in a loop to read and output the file in smaller chunks, which can be more memory efficient. 

<?php
$files = ['file1.txt', 'file2.txt', 'file3.txt'];

foreach ($files as $file) {
    $handle = fopen($file, 'rb');
    while (!feof($handle)) {
        echo fread($handle, 8192);
    }
    fclose($handle);
}
?>

Keywords

readfile limitations downloading multiple files alternative methods

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