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Re: Reading a file on same server

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On 31/07/13 13:13, Bruce Lee wrote:
> HI
>
> Suppose I have a php file "read_file.php" that is used to read .txt files, the structure of the folder/files are:
>
> /www/read_file.php
> /www/public/upload/
>
> I was wondering which will be faster and why in PHP..
>
> Method 1:
> read file using relative path
>
> Eg: get_file_contents("public/upload/test.txt");
>
>
> Method 2:
> read file using URL (note that the server which is making the request and the server where the file is being read is same)
>
> Eg: get_file_contents("http://mydomain.com/public/upload/test.txt");
>
>
> Can someone explain me which is faster and why?

Compare what would happen:

Method 1:
1. PHP opens a file.
2. Reads file.
3. Close file.

Method 2:
1. PHP makes a handshake with the webserver
2. Web server opens file.
3. Web server opens log file (or it's already open, depends on config).
4. Web server reads file.
5. Web server sends file.
6. Web server writes to log.
7. PHP receives data

Handshakes are usually time consuming and as the web server will do 
other things too, it will cause overhead.

You could compare the whole with reading a book, I'll present two 
methods and you pick which one is faster:

Method 1:
You read a book.

Method 2:
You ask your friend to read a book, write it down on paper and you read 
the written papers.

And if you doubt us, do as Thomas suggests, measure the time consumed, 
test it say 1000 times each method, compare the times.

There is another aspect to it too, error handling will be more 
difficult, as you don't really know why the web server suddenly gives 
you a 404, is the file really gone or just that the web server ain't 
allowed to access it or someone changed the DocumentRoot.

Also the more you do over the net instead of directly, it's more 
difficult to follow what happens in your code and it becomes difficult 
to maintain the code in a proper way, I have seen such code out in the 
live, just for someone thought it was simpler to call another script 
than write the function in a way that you could include the code and use 
it directly.

-- 

  //Aho

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Thread

Reading a file on same server Bruce Lee <phpzendguru@gmail.com> - 2013-07-31 04:13 -0700
  Re: Reading a file on same server The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2013-07-31 12:40 +0100
  Re: Reading a file on same server Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2013-07-31 15:13 +0200
  Re: Reading a file on same server "J.O. Aho" <user@example.net> - 2013-07-31 18:09 +0200
    Re: Reading a file on same server Luuk <luuk@invalid.lan> - 2013-08-01 21:28 +0200

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