From: Brian Candler <B.Candler@...>
Date: 2003-04-08T17:00:10+09:00
Subject: Re: sending a file via http

On Tue, Apr 08, 2003 at 02:32:35PM +0900, Andrew wrote:
> I'm trying to send a file using http in a ruby script of mine.

A CGI, presumably?

> This is what I have so far...
> ....
> file = File.open("data.zip")
> puts "Content-type: application/x-zip-compressed\n"
> puts "Content-length: "+File.size("album.zip").to_s+"\n\n"
> 
> ok, now what?  How do I send the file data?

You should be OK with:

  print File.read("album.zip")

Or slightly more efficient,

  File.open("album.zip") do |f|
    print f.read
  end

because it closes the file immediately, rather than waiting until
garbage-collection time.

If running as a CGI you shouldn't need to generate a Content-length: header,
just let your webserver deal with it. It can use chunked transfer encoding
if the file is large.

Regards,

Brian.