php-doc-en/reference/stream/reference.xml

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 <reference id="ref.stream">
  <title>Stream functions</title>
  <titleabbrev>Streams</titleabbrev>

  <partintro>

   <section id="stream.intro">
    &reftitle.intro;
    <simpara>
     Streams were introduced with <literal>PHP</literal> 4.3.0 as
     a way of generalizing file, network, data compression, and other
     opperations which share a common set of functions and uses. In
     its simplest definition, a stream is any I/O conduit for exchanging
     information.  Some streams work on the local filesystem, some
     use network connections (sockets), while others might potentially focus 
     on communication devices such as printers or modems.  Because any variety
     of stream may be added to <literal>PHP</literal> via the 
     <function>stream_register_wrapper</function> function, there is no 
     set limit on what can be done with them. See <xref linkend="wrappers"/> 
     for a listing of stream wrappers built into <literal>PHP</literal>.
    </simpara>
    <para>
     A stream is referenced as: <parameter>scheme</parameter>://<parameter>target</parameter>
     <itemizedlist>
      <listitem>
       <simpara>
        <parameter>scheme</parameter>(string) -
        The name of the stream wrapper to be used.  Examples include: file, 
        http, https, ftp, ftps, compress.zlib, compress.bz2, ssl, tls, and php.  See 
        <xref linkend="wrappers"/> for a list of PHP builtin wrappers.
       </simpara>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
       <simpara>
        <parameter>target</parameter> - 
        Depends on the wrapper used.  For filesystem related streams this is
        typically a path and filename of the desired file.  For network related 
        streams this is typically a hostname often with a path appended.  Again, see
        <xref linkend="wrappers"/> for a description of targets for builtin streams.
       </simpara>
      </listitem>
     </itemizedlist>
    </para>
    <simpara>
     Filters may also be applied to streams to further process data on its
     way into or out of a stream related call.  Documentation on this
     functionality is comming soon.
    </simpara>
   </section>
  
   <section id="stream.requirements">
    &reftitle.required;
    &no.requirement;
   </section>
   
   <section id="stream.installation">
    &reftitle.install; 
    <para>
     Streams are an integral part of <literal>PHP</literal>
     as of version 4.3.0.  No steps are required to enable them.
    </para>
   </section>

   <section id="stream.configuration">
    &reftitle.runtime;
    &no.config;
   </section>

   <section id="stream.resources">
    &reftitle.resources;
    &no.resource;
   </section>

   <section id="stream.constants">
    &reftitle.constants;
    &no.constants;
   </section>

   <section id="stream.errors">
    <title>Stream Errors</title>
    <para>
     As with any file or socket related function, an opperation on a stream
     may fail for a variety of normal reasons (i.e.: Unable to connect to remote
     host, file not found, etc...).  A stream related call may also fail because
     the desired stream is not registered on the running system.  See the output of
     <function>php_info</function> for a list of streams supported by your
     installation of <literal>PHP</literal>.  As with most PHP internal functions
     if a failure occours an <constant>E_WARNING</constant> message will be generated
     describing the nature of the error.
    </para>
   </section>
   
   <section id="sockets.examples">
    &reftitle.examples;
    <para>
     <example>
      <title>Using file_get_contents() to retrieve data from multiple sources</title>
      <programlisting role="php">
<![CDATA[
<?php
$localfile = file_get_contents("/home/bar/foo.txt");                         // Read local file from /home/bar
$localfile = file_get_contents("file:///home/bar/foo.txt");                  // Identical to above, explicitly naming FILE scheme
$httpfile  = file_get_contents("http://www.example.com/foo.txt");            // Read remote file from www.example.com using HTTP 
$httpsfile = file_get_contents("https://www.example.com/foo.txt");           // Read remote file from www.example.com using HTTPS
$ftpfile   = file_get_contents("ftp://user:pass@ftp.example.com/foo.txt");   // Read remote file from ftp.example.com using FTP 
$ftpsfile  = file_get_contents("ftps://user:pass@ftp.example.com/foo.txt");  // Read remote file from ftp.example.com using FTPS 
?>
]]?>
      </programlisting>
     </example>
    </para>
    <para>
     <example>
      <title>Making a POST request to an https server</title>
      <programlisting role="php">
<![CDATA[
<?php
/* Send POST request to https://secure.example.com/form_action.php
 * Include form elements named "foo" and "bar" with dummy values
 */

$sock = fsockopen("ssl://secure.example.com", 443, $errno, $errstr, 30);
if (!$sock) die("$errstr ($errno)\n";

$data = "foo=" . urlencode("Value for Foo") . "&bar=" . urlencode("Value for Bar");

fputs($sock, "POST /form_action.php HTTP/1.0\r\n");
fputs($sock, "Host: secure.example.com\r\n");
fputs($sock, "Content-type: application/x-www-url-encoded\r\n");
fputs($sock, "Content-length: " . strlen($data) . "\r\n");
fputs($sock, "Accept: */*\r\n");
fputs($sock, "\r\n");
fputs($sock, "$data\r\n");
fputs($sock, "\r\n");

$headers = "";
while ($str = trim(fgets($sock, 4096)))
  $headers .= "$str\n";

print "\n";

$body = "";
while (!feof($sock))
  $body .= fgets($sock, 4096);

fclose($sock);
?>
]]>
      </programlisting>
     </example>
    </para>
    <para>
     <example>
      <title>Writting data to a compressed file</title>
      <programlisting role="php">
<![CDATA[
<?php
/* Create a compressed file containing an arbitrarty string
 * File can be read back using compress.zlib stream or just
 * decompressed from the command line using 'gzip -d foo-bar.txt.gz'
 */
$fp = fopen("compress.zlib://foo-bar.txt.gz","w");
if (!$fp) die("Unable to create file.");

fwrite($fp, "This is a test.\n");

fclose($fp);
?>
]]>
      </programlisting>
     </example>
    </para>
   </section>
   <simpara>
    For PHP Streams Development, See Also: <xref linkend="streams"/>
   </simpara>
  </partintro>

&reference.stream.functions;

 </reference>
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