PHP Manual . ... PHP 3 <= 3.0.18, PHP 4 >= 4.0.0) fread -- Binary-safe file read . string fread ( int fp, int length) . fread() reads up to length bytes from the file pointer referenced by fp . Reading stops when length bytes have been read or EOF is reached, whichever comes first. // get contents of a file into a string $filename = "/usr/local/something.txt"; $fd = fopen ($filename, "r"); $contents = fread ($fd, filesize ($filename)); fclose ($fd); . ...