PHP close HTTP connection then continue processing?

Question

Why is the last line of this function required to make this work? I don't understand what's going on here. It does work though.

function close_connection() {
    // if we're using sessions this stops them from hanging on other requests
    session_write_close();
    // get the content length from the buffer (the whole point of the buffer)
    header('Content-Length: 0');
    // close the connection
    header('Connection: close');
    // flush the buffers to the screen
    flush();

    // connection closing doesn't work without this. I don't know why
    echo ' ';
}

blowdoof · Accepted Answer · 2013-07-17 22:33:44Z

1

Headers are sent whenever the first byte is output to the browser.
You could also try to use ob_end_flush();

answered Jul 17, 2013 at 22:33

blowdoof

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5 Comments

Farzher Over a year ago

I tried with ob_end_flush() before actually. it wasn't doing anything so I removed it. Probably because my buffer was totally empty?

blowdoof Over a year ago

you could check that by using : $obsize = ob_get_length(); and then use that output size in your header Content-Length: header("Content-Length: $obsize");

Farzher Over a year ago

Can I flush buffers without sending any content?

blowdoof Over a year ago

Yes, by using ob_clean() or ob_get_clean()

Bobby Tables Over a year ago

If your server compresses output, you need to disable it with header("Content-Encoding: none\r\n");

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