# Software question PHP?



## Danny McG (Sep 20, 2018)

I was trying to download an epub but when it was done I'd got some unfamiliar thing in my inbox.

Like a funny symbol and it said
 '*get.PHP*'

What happened please? What does it do or mean?


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## tinkerdan (Sep 22, 2018)

looks like it downloaded the actual PHP file that was supposed to get and download the epub file.



> A *PHP file* is a webpage that contains *PHP* (Hypertext Preprocessor) code. ... The *PHP* code within the webpage is processed (parsed) by a *PHP* engine on the web server, which dynamically generates HTML. The HTML, which contains the webpage content, is then sent to the user's web browser. [\Quote]



That might occur if the PHP engine is not working. Or I suppose if your browser is set to not execute PHP code.


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## Brian G Turner (Sep 22, 2018)

A php file is basically a script. It sounds like the download link was screwy and linked to the download script instead of the ebook.


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## Vertigo (Sep 22, 2018)

This can sometimes happen if you right click a download link and select "Save Target As" (or browser dependent equivalent). What then happens depends on the link itself. If it links directly to the target file you will save the correct file (epub, jpeg, mp3, whatever), but if, as is often the case, it actually links to another page or script you will download the page or script instead. Typically that page or script would be responsible for automatically starting the download.


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## Danny McG (Sep 26, 2018)

Thanks all.
I was most confused.


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