Title: WP_Filesystem_SSH2::get_contents
Published: April 25, 2014
Last modified: February 24, 2026

---

# WP_Filesystem_SSH2::get_contents( string $file ): string|false

## In this article

 * [Parameters](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_filesystem_ssh2/get_contents/?output_format=md#parameters)
 * [Return](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_filesystem_ssh2/get_contents/?output_format=md#return)
 * [Source](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_filesystem_ssh2/get_contents/?output_format=md#source)
 * [Related](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_filesystem_ssh2/get_contents/?output_format=md#related)
 * [Changelog](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_filesystem_ssh2/get_contents/?output_format=md#changelog)

[ Back to top](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_filesystem_ssh2/get_contents/?output_format=md#wp--skip-link--target)

Reads entire file into a string.

## 󠀁[Parameters](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_filesystem_ssh2/get_contents/?output_format=md#parameters)󠁿

 `$file`stringrequired

Name of the file to read.

## 󠀁[Return](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_filesystem_ssh2/get_contents/?output_format=md#return)󠁿

 string|false Read data on success, false if no temporary file could be opened, 
or if the file couldn’t be retrieved.

## 󠀁[Source](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_filesystem_ssh2/get_contents/?output_format=md#source)󠁿

    ```php
    public function get_contents( $file ) {
    	return file_get_contents( $this->sftp_path( $file ) );
    }
    ```

[View all references](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/files/wp-admin/includes/class-wp-filesystem-ssh2.php/)
[View on Trac](https://core.trac.wordpress.org/browser/tags/6.9.4/src/wp-admin/includes/class-wp-filesystem-ssh2.php#L257)
[View on GitHub](https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/blob/6.9.4/src/wp-admin/includes/class-wp-filesystem-ssh2.php#L257-L259)

## 󠀁[Related](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_filesystem_ssh2/get_contents/?output_format=md#related)󠁿

| Uses | Description | 
| [WP_Filesystem_SSH2::sftp_path()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_filesystem_ssh2/sftp_path/)`wp-admin/includes/class-wp-filesystem-ssh2.php` |

Gets the ssh2.sftp PHP stream wrapper path to open for the given file.

  |

| Used by | Description | 
| [WP_Filesystem_SSH2::copy()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_filesystem_ssh2/copy/)`wp-admin/includes/class-wp-filesystem-ssh2.php` |

Copies a file.

  |

## 󠀁[Changelog](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_filesystem_ssh2/get_contents/?output_format=md#changelog)󠁿

| Version | Description | 
| [2.7.0](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/since/2.7.0/) | Introduced. |

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