How to force file download with PHP

Question

I want to require a file to be downloaded upon the user visiting a web page with PHP. I think it has something to do with file_get_contents, but am not sure how

Answer 1

A modification of the accepted answer above, which also detects the MIME type in runtime:

$finfo = finfo_open(FILEINFO_MIME_TYPE);
header('Content-Type: '.finfo_file($finfo, $path));

$finfo = finfo_open(FILEINFO_MIME_ENCODING);
header('Content-Transfer-Encoding: '.finfo_file($finfo, $path)); 

header('Content-disposition: attachment; filename="'.basename($path).'"'); 
readfile($path); // do the double-download-dance (dirty but worky)