CURL_RETURNTRANSFER downloding large files - php

Question

I use a funtion to download files trough a private API.
Everything goes fine to download small/medium files, but large files is impossible beacause it uses too much memory.
Here is my function:
protected function executeFile($method, $url, $params=array(), $as_user=null) {
$data_string = json_encode($params);
$method = strtoupper($method);
$ch = curl_init();
if($method == 'GET') {
$url = $this->options['api_url'].$url.'?';
$url .= $this->format_query($params);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
} else {
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $this->options['api_url'].$url);
}
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST, $method);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $data_string);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
if($as_user) {
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, array(
'Content-Type: application/json',
'Content-Length: ' . strlen($data_string),
'Token: '.$this->token,
'As: '.$as_user
));
} else {
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, array(
'Content-Type: application/json',
'Content-Length: ' . strlen($data_string),
'Token: '.$this->token
));
}
$result_json = curl_exec($ch);
$curl_info = curl_getinfo($ch);
$return = array();
$return["result"] = $result_json;
$return["entete"] = $curl_info;
return $return;
}
How could i optimize this to download files to disk instead of memory ?
Thanks

Answer 1

use CURLOPT_FILE . It will ask for file pointer where download will be saved.
code will be like
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
$fp = fopen("your_file", 'w+');
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FILE, $fp);
curl_exec ($ch);

Answer 2

You can use CURLOPT_FILE, like this:
protected function executeFile($method, $url, $params=array(), $as_user=null) {
$data_string = json_encode($params);
$method = strtoupper($method);
$fp = fopen ('savefilepath', 'w+');
$ch = curl_init();
if($method == 'GET') {
$url = $this->options['api_url'].$url.'?';
$url .= $this->format_query($params);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
} else {
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $this->options['api_url'].$url);
}
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST, $method);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $data_string);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FILE, $fp);
....
curl_exec($ch);
fclose($fp);
.....
return $return;
}