Title: WP_Filesystem_Base::get_contents
Published: April 25, 2014
Last modified: May 20, 2026

---

# WP_Filesystem_Base::get_contents( string $file ): string|false

## In this article

 * [Parameters](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_filesystem_base/get_contents/?output_format=md#parameters)
 * [Return](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_filesystem_base/get_contents/?output_format=md#return)
 * [Source](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_filesystem_base/get_contents/?output_format=md#source)
 * [Changelog](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_filesystem_base/get_contents/?output_format=md#changelog)
 * [User Contributed Notes](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_filesystem_base/get_contents/?output_format=md#user-contributed-notes)

[ Back to top](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_filesystem_base/get_contents/?output_format=md#wp--skip-link--target)

Reads entire file into a string.

## 󠀁[Parameters](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_filesystem_base/get_contents/?output_format=md#parameters)󠁿

 `$file`stringrequired

Name of the file to read.

## 󠀁[Return](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_filesystem_base/get_contents/?output_format=md#return)󠁿

 string|false Read data on success, false on failure.

## 󠀁[Source](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_filesystem_base/get_contents/?output_format=md#source)󠁿

    ```php
    public function get_contents( $file ) {
    	return false;
    }
    ```

[View all references](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/files/wp-admin/includes/class-wp-filesystem-base.php/)
[View on Trac](https://core.trac.wordpress.org/browser/tags/7.0/src/wp-admin/includes/class-wp-filesystem-base.php#L500)
[View on GitHub](https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/blob/7.0/src/wp-admin/includes/class-wp-filesystem-base.php#L500-L502)

## 󠀁[Changelog](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_filesystem_base/get_contents/?output_format=md#changelog)󠁿

| Version | Description | 
| [2.5.0](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/since/2.5.0/) | Introduced. |

## 󠀁[User Contributed Notes](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_filesystem_base/get_contents/?output_format=md#user-contributed-notes)󠁿

 1.  [Skip to note 2 content](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_filesystem_base/get_contents/?output_format=md#comment-content-6461)
 2.   [Darren Cooney](https://profiles.wordpress.org/dcooney/)  [  3 years ago  ](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_filesystem_base/get_contents/#comment-6461)
 3. [You must log in to vote on the helpfulness of this note](https://login.wordpress.org?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Fdeveloper.wordpress.org%2Freference%2Fclasses%2Fwp_filesystem_base%2Fget_contents%2F%23comment-6461)
    Vote results for this note: 0[You must log in to vote on the helpfulness of this note](https://login.wordpress.org?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Fdeveloper.wordpress.org%2Freference%2Fclasses%2Fwp_filesystem_base%2Fget_contents%2F%23comment-6461)
 4.     ```php
        global $wp_filesystem;
        include_once ABSPATH . 'wp-admin/includes/file.php';
        WP_Filesystem();
    
        $filepath = '/path/to/file/index.html';
        $contents = $wp_filesystem->get_contents( $filepath );
    
        if ( ! $contents ) {
        	echo 'Error accessing file.';
        }
        ```
    
 5.  [Log in to add feedback](https://login.wordpress.org/?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Fdeveloper.wordpress.org%2Freference%2Fclasses%2Fwp_filesystem_base%2Fget_contents%2F%3Freplytocom%3D6461%23feedback-editor-6461)

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