problem with system()

Hi, I'm trying to unzip a file and save the unzipped data in a variable in PHP using : $result = system ( "gzip -d -c myfile.gz" ); /* 'gzip -d -c' unzips the file to 'stdout' */ the above command outputs the result directly to browser instead of putting it in $result. I tried exec() too but it didn't help because exec() returns only the last line of the output data. let me add that myfile.gz is about 1.5mb. help me please ! Arash