Force a file to be downloaded

View the following article for instructions on how to create an .htaccess file on your web server:

• Creating an .htaccess file on your DreamHost web server

If the file already exists, view the following articles for instructions on how to update it (depending on if you're using an FTP client or SSH):

• Creating and editing a file via FTP
• Creating and editing a file via SSH

By default, if a text file (.txt) is requested, the contents of the file is shown in the browser and is not downloaded. This is because the default MIME type for .txt files specifies to show the files and not download them. However, you can change this by adding the following line to your .htaccess file:

AddType application/octet-stream txt

You can change the extension to anything you like such as mp3 or mov. Here is another example which does the same thing – any files ending in mov, mp3, jpg, or pdf are automatically downloaded:

<FilesMatch "\.(mov|mp3|jpg|pdf)$">
ForceType application/octet-stream
Header set Content-Disposition attachment
</FilesMatch>