Hi guys,

I am currently using the following PHP function to stream files:

/**
 * @return void
 */
protected final function stream( $filePath, $offset, $maxLength=null )
{
	if( $maxLength === null )
	{
		$maxLength = filesize( $filePath );
	}

	$chunk = 32;
	$total = 0;

	$handle = fopen( $filePath, "rb" );

	if( $handle )
	{
		fseek( $handle, $offset );
		
		while( feof( $handle ) == false )
		{
			echo( fread( $handle, $chunk ) );

			$total += $chunk;

			if( $total >= $maxLength )
			{
				break;
			}
		}

		fclose( $handle );
	}
}

As you can see I have a $chunk variable defined that limits the size of each "packet" pulled from the file, I'm doing this to cap the length of data that can be read. I have a couple of questions regarding this technique:

How much of an impact on server (file system) resources would this have? For example, would it be a big no-no to set the $chunk value to 1.

Would it be bad to cut the stream if it was in the middle of a MP3 or FLV tag?

I have run a little test streaming a standard FLV file from a server, and I am able to seek to any point in the file at any time, but I would like some pointers/tips from PHPers who have had experience with this kind of thing (I don't want to end up killing servers or SWF files etc).

Thanks.

PS: Who needs FMS when you have PHP.

www.si-robertson.com

[Nutrox]

No problem with this one guys, I think I have nailed it. I have increased the chunk size to 4096 bytes (adjustable by the client), added a flush() after the echo() to make sure the bytes get pushed to the client as a stream, setup a shutdown handler to catch aborted connections, and also made sure the correct headers are sent when a client tries to continue a download/stream after disconnecting. It all seems to be working as expected.