php FILE POST upload without save

Question

I am using a plain text file in a PhP script. Is there any way to process the file in the PhP script without saving it locally? Everywhere I see simply uploading a file and sav

Answer 1

If its text file (assuming size is not that huge) usually you could read it by

$contents= file_get_contents($_FILES['file']['tmp_name']);

If you are not sure which type of upload it was, check the request method

if(strtolower($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'])=='post')
    $contents= file_get_contents($_FILES['file']['tmp_name']);
elseif(strtolower($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'])=='put')
    $contents= file_get_contents("php://input");
else
    $contents="";

Answer 2

When the form is submitted, check the $_FILES['input_name']['tmp_name'] property. This is the path to your file saved in a temporary /tmp system path. You can proceed reading the name using, say, file_get_contents() and then simply forget the file. System will take care of removing it.

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Just to stand out of the other answers, you could theoretically read the file without even uploading it using JavaScript, see http://www.html5rocks.com/en/tutorials/file/dndfiles/. Then submit only the data you need as part of AJAX request.

Answer 3

no it would have to be saved to be read afaik, my normally routine is the same as yours, upload, read and delete.

Answer 4

You could just use $_FILES["file"]["tmp_name"] which would be the temp file that was uploaded. Once your script is done running, PHP should even clean up after itself and delete the temp file.

Answer 5

The file has to be saved somewhere before reading in this case is the temporary directory; You can get the contents of the file from the temporary directory, then if you really need to you delete. See the following code:

$file = file_get_contents($_FILES["ufiley"]["tmp_name"]);

unlink($_FILES["ufiley"]["tmp_name"]); 

//contents would be stored in $file

Answer 6

When you upload a file, before you save it locally it get's saved to a temporary file. The location of which can be accessed by:

$_FILES['uploadedfile']['tmp_name'] 

You can choose not to save the file and fopen() the temporary file, as long as you do this within the same script that recieves the POST.