Compress and download on the fly

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PHP

scripting

script

Hi all,

I'm trying to write a php script for on the fly compression and download.
I have lots of problems trying to get it working on this particular web server.
This is my code:

header('Content-Type: application/octet-stream');
header('Content-disposition: attachment; filename="file.zip"');
set_time_limit(0);
//$fp = proc_open('zip -r9 - foldertocompress', 'w');
//$fp = system('zip -r9 ');
// pick a bufsize that makes you happy (8192 has been suggested).
$bufsize = 8192;
$buff = '';
while( !feof($fp) ) {
   $buff = fread($fp, $bufsize);
   echo $buff;
   flush();
}

I am trying out different commands to see which works, and the amusing thing
is that it starts to download even with the 2 lines assigning to $fp commented out?!
I really don't understand this, where is $fp getting its data from?
Thanks,
Brian