Basic cURL file or page download with basic error trapping.

<?php

function cURLcheckBasicFunctions()
{
if( !function_exists("curl_init") &&
!function_exists("curl_setopt") &&
!function_exists("curl_exec") &&
!function_exists("curl_close") ) return false;
else return true;
}

/*
* Returns string status information.
* Can be changed to int or bool return types.
*/
function cURLdownload($url, $file)
{
if( !cURLcheckBasicFunctions() ) return "UNAVAILABLE: cURL Basic Functions";
$ch = curl_init();
if($ch)
{
$fp = fopen($file, "w");
if($fp)
{
if( !curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url) )
{
fclose($fp); // to match fopen()
curl_close($ch); // to match curl_init()
return "FAIL: curl_setopt(CURLOPT_URL)";
}
if( !curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FILE, $fp) ) return "FAIL: curl_setopt(CURLOPT_FILE)";
if( !curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, 0) ) return "FAIL: curl_setopt(CURLOPT_HEADER)";
if( !curl_exec($ch) ) return "FAIL: curl_exec()";
curl_close($ch);
fclose($fp);
return "SUCCESS: $file [$url]";
}
else return "FAIL: fopen()";
}
else return "FAIL: curl_init()";
}

// Download from 'example.com' to 'example.txt'
echo cURLdownload("http://www.example.com/", "example.txt");

?>