download_url( string $url, int $timeout = 300, bool $signature_verification = false ): string|WP_Error

Downloads a URL to a local temporary file using the WordPress HTTP API.

Description

Please note that the calling function must delete or move the file.

Parameters

$urlstringrequired
The URL of the file to download.
$timeoutintoptional
The timeout for the request to download the file.
Default 300 seconds.

Default:300

$signature_verificationbooloptional
Whether to perform Signature Verification.

Default:false

Return

string|WP_Error Filename on success, WP_Error on failure.

Source

function download_url( $url, $timeout = 300, $signature_verification = false ) {	// WARNING: The file is not automatically deleted, the script must delete or move the file.	if ( ! $url ) {	return new WP_Error( 'http_no_url', __( 'No URL Provided.' ) );	}	$url_path = parse_url( $url, PHP_URL_PATH );	$url_filename = '';	if ( is_string( $url_path ) && '' !== $url_path ) {	$url_filename = basename( $url_path );	}	$tmpfname = wp_tempnam( $url_filename );	if ( ! $tmpfname ) {	return new WP_Error( 'http_no_file', __( 'Could not create temporary file.' ) );	}	$response = wp_safe_remote_get(	$url,	array(	'timeout' => $timeout,	'stream' => true,	'filename' => $tmpfname,	)	);	if ( is_wp_error( $response ) ) {	unlink( $tmpfname );	return $response;	}	$response_code = wp_remote_retrieve_response_code( $response );	if ( 200 !== $response_code ) {	$data = array(	'code' => $response_code,	);	// Retrieve a sample of the response body for debugging purposes.	$tmpf = fopen( $tmpfname, 'rb' );	if ( $tmpf ) {	/** * Filters the maximum error response body size in `download_url()`. * * @since 5.1.0 * * @see download_url() * * @param int $size The maximum error response body size. Default 1 KB. */	$response_size = apply_filters( 'download_url_error_max_body_size', KB_IN_BYTES );	$data['body'] = fread( $tmpf, $response_size );	fclose( $tmpf );	}	unlink( $tmpfname );	return new WP_Error( 'http_404', trim( wp_remote_retrieve_response_message( $response ) ), $data );	}	$content_disposition = wp_remote_retrieve_header( $response, 'Content-Disposition' );	if ( $content_disposition ) {	$content_disposition = strtolower( $content_disposition );	if ( str_starts_with( $content_disposition, 'attachment; filename=' ) ) {	$tmpfname_disposition = sanitize_file_name( substr( $content_disposition, 21 ) );	} else {	$tmpfname_disposition = '';	}	// Potential file name must be valid string.	if ( $tmpfname_disposition && is_string( $tmpfname_disposition )	&& ( 0 === validate_file( $tmpfname_disposition ) )	) {	$tmpfname_disposition = dirname( $tmpfname ) . '/' . $tmpfname_disposition;	if ( rename( $tmpfname, $tmpfname_disposition ) ) {	$tmpfname = $tmpfname_disposition;	}	if ( ( $tmpfname !== $tmpfname_disposition ) && file_exists( $tmpfname_disposition ) ) {	unlink( $tmpfname_disposition );	}	}	}	$mime_type = wp_remote_retrieve_header( $response, 'content-type' );	if ( $mime_type && 'tmp' === pathinfo( $tmpfname, PATHINFO_EXTENSION ) ) {	$valid_mime_types = array_flip( get_allowed_mime_types() );	if ( ! empty( $valid_mime_types[ $mime_type ] ) ) {	$extensions = explode( '|', $valid_mime_types[ $mime_type ] );	$new_image_name = substr( $tmpfname, 0, -4 ) . ".{$extensions[0]}";	if ( 0 === validate_file( $new_image_name ) ) {	if ( rename( $tmpfname, $new_image_name ) ) {	$tmpfname = $new_image_name;	}	if ( ( $tmpfname !== $new_image_name ) && file_exists( $new_image_name ) ) {	unlink( $new_image_name );	}	}	}	}	$content_md5 = wp_remote_retrieve_header( $response, 'Content-MD5' );	if ( $content_md5 ) {	$md5_check = verify_file_md5( $tmpfname, $content_md5 );	if ( is_wp_error( $md5_check ) ) {	unlink( $tmpfname );	return $md5_check;	}	}	// If the caller expects signature verification to occur, check to see if this URL supports it.	if ( $signature_verification ) {	/** * Filters the list of hosts which should have Signature Verification attempted on. * * @since 5.2.0 * * @param string[] $hostnames List of hostnames. */	$signed_hostnames = apply_filters( 'wp_signature_hosts', array( 'wordpress.org', 'downloads.wordpress.org', 's.w.org' ) );	$signature_verification = in_array( parse_url( $url, PHP_URL_HOST ), $signed_hostnames, true );	}	// Perform signature validation if supported.	if ( $signature_verification ) {	$signature = wp_remote_retrieve_header( $response, 'X-Content-Signature' );	if ( ! $signature ) {	/* * Retrieve signatures from a file if the header wasn't included. * WordPress.org stores signatures at $package_url.sig. */	$signature_url = false;	if ( is_string( $url_path ) && ( str_ends_with( $url_path, '.zip' ) || str_ends_with( $url_path, '.tar.gz' ) ) ) {	$signature_url = str_replace( $url_path, $url_path . '.sig', $url );	}	/** * Filters the URL where the signature for a file is located. * * @since 5.2.0 * * @param false|string $signature_url The URL where signatures can be found for a file, or false if none are known. * @param string $url The URL being verified. */	$signature_url = apply_filters( 'wp_signature_url', $signature_url, $url );	if ( $signature_url ) {	$signature_request = wp_safe_remote_get(	$signature_url,	array(	'limit_response_size' => 10 * KB_IN_BYTES, // 10KB should be large enough for quite a few signatures.	)	);	if ( ! is_wp_error( $signature_request ) && 200 === wp_remote_retrieve_response_code( $signature_request ) ) {	$signature = explode( "\n", wp_remote_retrieve_body( $signature_request ) );	}	}	}	// Perform the checks.	$signature_verification = verify_file_signature( $tmpfname, $signature, $url_filename );	}	if ( is_wp_error( $signature_verification ) ) {	if (	/** * Filters whether Signature Verification failures should be allowed to soft fail. * * WARNING: This may be removed from a future release. * * @since 5.2.0 * * @param bool $signature_softfail If a softfail is allowed. * @param string $url The url being accessed. */	apply_filters( 'wp_signature_softfail', true, $url )	) {	$signature_verification->add_data( $tmpfname, 'softfail-filename' );	} else {	// Hard-fail.	unlink( $tmpfname );	}	return $signature_verification;	}	return $tmpfname; } 

Hooks

apply_filters( ‘download_url_error_max_body_size’, int $size )

Filters the maximum error response body size in download_url().

apply_filters( ‘wp_signature_hosts’, string[] $hostnames )

Filters the list of hosts which should have Signature Verification attempted on.

apply_filters( ‘wp_signature_softfail’, bool $signature_softfail, string $url )

Filters whether Signature Verification failures should be allowed to soft fail.

apply_filters( ‘wp_signature_url’, false|string $signature_url, string $url )

Filters the URL where the signature for a file is located.

Changelog

VersionDescription
5.9.0Support for Content-Disposition filename was added.
5.2.0Signature Verification with SoftFail was added.
2.5.0Introduced.

User Contributed Notes

  1. Skip to note 4 content

    To be able to use this function in the front-end nor cron you must include wp-admin/includes/file.php file.

    <?php // If the function it's not available, require it. if ( ! function_exists( 'download_url' ) ) {	require_once ABSPATH . 'wp-admin/includes/file.php'; } // Now you can use it! $file_url = 'https://example.com/myfile.ext'; $tmp_file = download_url( $file_url ); // Sets file final destination. $filepath = ABSPATH . 'wp-content/uploads/myfile.ext'; // Copies the file to the final destination and deletes temporary file. copy( $tmp_file, $filepath ); @unlink( $tmp_file );
  2. Skip to note 6 content

    WordPress files can be called easily by accessing the wp-load file.php which is located at the root of wordpress installation.

     require_once(BASE_PATH . 'wp-load.php');
     /* link to file to be downloaded */ public function download( $url = "http://www.example.com/example/downloads/information/php.pdf&quot;){ download_url( $url ); }

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