no se si te referiras a algo asi:
Código PHP:
try
{
InputStream in = new FileInputStream(ruta);
byte[] data = new byte[in.available()];
in.read(data);
response.setContentType("application/msword;");//porque yo leo word, seria cambiar a tipo text
response.setHeader("Content-Disposition","inline; filename=\"nombre.txt"";");
response.setContentLength(data.length);
javax.servlet.ServletOutputStream servletoutputstream = response.getOutputStream();
servletoutputstream.write(data);
servletoutputstream.flush();
servletoutputstream.close();
} catch (IOException e) {
System.out.println("error:"+e.getMessage());
//Trace.exception(this,".jsp-->IOException"+e.getMessage());
}