get_file_contents($url) and traffic logs

[geiger]

If get_file_contents is used to read a URL, how does that show up to traffic logs (since the script is not a browser, doesn't have browser properties, etc.). Is there a way to toggle whether or not it shows at all?

[decowski]

http://uk2.php.net/manual/en/wrappers.http.php

Off Topic:


Post count (386): My first PC nearly 20 years ago. It was a 386 25MHz. That's 0.025 GHz. Oh, and it had 2MB RAM and 40MB harddrive

[geiger]

Um. I have some trouble understanding the jargon-laden explanations on php.net. Could you please explain?

[decowski]

Um. I have some trouble understanding the jargon-laden explanations on php.net. Could you please explain?

A request made by file_get_contents is a regular GET request. It will show in the target server's logs as a request from the server your script is hosted on. You may explicitly state user agent, as in the document I linked to. If you don't then no user agent header is sent.

[geiger]

Thanks. Does the "referrer" show as the URL of the script? If so, is it possible to change the URL displayed as the referrer to a different directory?

[decowski]

Referrer header isn't sent at all. If you want more control over what is sent use cURL.

[geiger]

decowski, Does that mean there will be zero information about where the file read is coming from using get_file_contents?

[decowski]

decowski, Does that mean there will be zero information about where the file read is coming from using get_file_contents?

There will be IP and, perhaps, hostname of your server.

[Salathe]

If you want to customise the request, you can create and use a stream context (stream_context_create).

$ctx = stream_context_create(array('http' => array(
    'header' => implode("\r\n", array(
        'User-Agent: Salathe 1.0 (http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/showthread.php?t=597424)',
        'Referer: http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/showthread.php?t=597424'
    ))
)));


$content = file_get_contents('http://example.org/', FALSE, $ctx); 

[geiger]

Awesome. Thanks, everyone.