ob_flush

Description

void ob_flush ( void )

This function will send the contents of the output buffer (if any). If you want to further process the buffer's contents you have to call ob_get_contents() before ob_flush() as the buffer contents are discarded after ob_flush() is called.

This function does not destroy the output buffer like ob_end_flush() does.

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22-Sep-2005 09:37


I was having problems with output buffering which seemed to be active by default on the server, although phpinfo said something else..



In any case I needed to know that when I ran ob_start, it would start at the top level, so I could use ob_flush as it's intended without having to call multiple ob_flush in-script - this is what I did:



<?php



// make sure output buffering is off before we start it

// this will ensure same effect whether or not ob is enabled already

while (ob_get_level()) {

    ob_end_flush();

}

// start output buffering

if (ob_get_length() === false) {

    ob_start();

}



?>



Then I could call ob_flush(); followed by flush(); and get the output I wanted, which I didn't if I started the script with just ob_start();



This was on a windows apache 2 server with php 5.0.4 btw.

24-Jun-2005 09:27


You must call them in the correct order.

ob_flush();

flush();

Reynard Hilman
23-Jun-2005 05:29


when using command line php, if somewhere in your script you have ob_start(), you have to call ob_end_flush() first, and then you can call these functions: 

flush();

ob_flush();



without calling ob_end_flush first, flush and ob_flush does not have any effect, at least that's what I experienced.

jeremy at e2-media dot co dot nz
26-May-2005 07:09


we had problems with flushing data to the browser. a simple call to ob_flush() or flush() would not work. We found that repeatly calling theses fuctions did work however.



<?

flush();

ob_flush();

flush();

ob_flush();

flush();

ob_flush();

?>



go figure!

15-Jan-2003 12:23


As far as I can tell the only way to mimic ob_flush()'s behaviour on PHP < 4.2.0 is calling ob_end_flush() followed by ob_start().

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