Variable serialization and unserialization. Loading and saving variable structures

<?php
 
  if (!isset($__VAR_LIB__)):
  $__VAR_LIB__ = 1;

  function var_load($fname) {
    if (file_exists($fname) && ($fp = fopen($fname, "rb")) ) {
      if (!($size = filesize($fname))) return 0;
      $s = fread($fp, $size);
      fclose($fp);
      return unserialize(&$s);
    } else
      return 0;
  }

  function var_save(&$var, $fname) {
    if (($fp = fopen($fname, "wb"))) {
      $s = serialize(&$var);
      fwrite($fp, &$s, strlen(&$s));
      fclose($fp);
    }
  }

  endif;
?>