title: PHP's fopen slow for large files; is there a better alternative?
body: <p>PHP's <code>fopen</code> is really slow when the file is really big. When I read the file using Python (single thread), the operation is x100 faster.</p>
  
  <p>My project requires us to use PHP for reading file data. Are there any other methods to handle file reads with PHP that would offer better performance?</p>
  
  <p>BTW - memory is not an issue I'm cleaning in runtime. </p>
  
  <p>Thanks for suggestions.</p>