PHP: how to get file from download link?

Question

PHP

Conditions . There is an api - it works on GET requests. Returns a file in XML/JSON format and the like (the file is downloaded automatically when you click on the url).
Task . Or open the file in a PHP script instead of downloading (ala file_get_contents or curl - it doesn't matter). Or, if the first option is not possible, then save this file to disk - I will continue to parse the file.
In principle, you can not chew too much - just tell me where to dig. A search in the PHP manual did not lead to success - either I was looking in the wrong place, or I was looking for the wrong thing, or "the skis don't go" - it's been almost a day behind the monitor. Thank you!

Answer 1

Basically "file upload" is just a custom HTTP header filename=...
Try
system('wget url -O filename');
file_get_contents(filename);
perhaps the server checks the authorization/referer headers, etc., because of this it does not give the file.

Answer 2

en2.php.net/manual/en/function.curl-exec.php

Answer 3

And if there is a link, but without a site. Sent, say, via Skype and there is nowhere to insert the download attribute, and right-click? Then you can use the savedirectlink.com/ru microservice