Downloading a file

JimJx has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

hi all, I have 2 files that I need to let ppl dl. I have seen a couple examples here of how to do this, but I get the name of the script that I am using as the filename when the dl box pops. Any ideas on how to get around this? Thanks in advance, Jim

# $filepath is the directory 
# $filename is the name of the file 
my ($filepath,$filename) = @_; 
chdir($filepath) || return(0); 
my $filesize = -s $filename; 

# print full header 
print "Content-disposition: inline; filename=$filename\n";
print "Content-Length: $filesize\n"; 
print "Content-Type: application/octet-stream\n\n"; 

# open in binmode 
open(READ,$filename) || die; 
binmode READ; 

# stream it out binmode 
STDOUT; 
while () { print; } 
close(READ); 

# should always return true 
return(1);
[download]

Comment on Downloading a file Download Code

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Re: Downloading a file by imp (Priest) on Sep 09, 2006 at 04:23 UTC
The headers look ok. I tested it successfully with IE6 and Firefox1.5 on a WinXP machine with slight modifications and a sample .tgz file: #!/usr/bin/perl use strict; use warnings; my $filename = 'pm.tgz'; my $filesize = -s $filename; # $filepath is the directory # $filename is the name of the file # print full header print "Content-disposition: inline; filename=$filename\n"; print "Content-Length: $filesize\n"; print "Content-Type: application/octet-stream\n\n"; # open in binmode open(READ,,'<',$filename) \|\| die; binmode READ; # stream it out binmode binmode STDOUT; while (<READ>) { print; } close(READ); # should always return true return(1); [download] Is it possible that you printed a header before this function was called? I would recommend the following minor changes : Use scalars for filehandles instead of barewords. Stricter scope, and auto-closes the file when the scalar is destroyed Use the 3 argument form of open Use 'or' instead of '\|\|' for testing failure as it has lower precedence Updated code: #!/usr/bin/perl use strict; use warnings; my $filename = 'pm.tgz'; my $filesize = -s $filename; # $filepath is the directory # $filename is the name of the file # print full header print "Content-disposition: inline; filename=$filename\n"; print "Content-Length: $filesize\n"; print "Content-Type: application/octet-stream\n\n"; # open in binmode open my $read,'<',$filename or die "Failed to read $filename - $!"; + binmode $read; # stream it out binmode binmode STDOUT; while (<$read>) { print; } # should always return true return(1); [download]	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: Downloading a file by bart (Canon) on Sep 09, 2006 at 06:34 UTC
`print "Content-disposition: inline; filename=$filename\n";` In my experience, if you use "inline", the browser will try to show it itself, but if you use "attachment" instead, it'll download it to disk. Also, I think it's (probably) safer to quote the filename. `print "Content-disposition: attachment; filename=\"$filename\"\n";` [download] That's from memory, I haven't rechecked it in practice. A few online references: RFC 2183: The Content-Disposition Header Field Microsoft: How To Raise a "File Download" Dialog Box for a Known MIME Type	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: Downloading a file by chromatic (Archbishop) on Sep 09, 2006 at 05:43 UTC
`my ($filepath,$filename) = @_;` That code is probably wrong, but I can't tell because you didn't show how you're invoking this program or script or fragment or whatever. How do you get the filepath and filename from the request?	[reply] [d/l]