Download Large Files with PHP.

PHPFileDownloader.php

  /**
   * Download a large distant file to a local destination.
   *
   * This method is very memory efficient :-)
   * The file can be huge, PHP doesn't load it in memory.
   *
   * /!\ Warning, the return value is always true, you must use === to test the response type too.
   *
   * @author Mohamed Riyad <@RyadPasha>
   * @url: http://ryadpasha.com
   * @email: me@ryadpasha.com
   *
   * @param string $url
   *    The file to download
   * @param ressource $dest
   *    The local file path or ressource (file handler)
   * @return boolean true or the error message
   */
     
function downloadDistantFile($url, $dest){
   $options = array(
     CURLOPT_FILE => is_resource($dest) ? $dest : fopen($dest, 'w'),
     CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION => true,
     CURLOPT_URL => $url,
     CURLOPT_FAILONERROR => true, // HTTP code > 400 will throw curl error
   );

   $ch = curl_init();
   curl_setopt_array($ch, $options);
   $return = curl_exec($ch);

   if($return === false){
      return curl_error($ch);
   } else return true;
}