fgets? fread? fpassthru?

[fordiman]

How do I read all the data until the last transmission of a connection, without closing it and without causing an endless loop, while leaving the connection open?

I've tried this:

while (!feof($fs)) {
$a .= fgets($fs, 1024);
}

but it just loops endlessly.

I'm trying to use this for remote SMTP with optional output (for debugging purposes), but it's getting to be a pain in the ass.

[[deleted]]

There are only two ways of knowing if a transmission is complete:
1. The connection closes
2. an 'end of data' message is received.

Sockets don't send EOFs (that's why !feof() doesn't work), so you'll have to make your own 'end of transmission' message.
Internet protocols often use a single dot on a single line to signal the 'end of data'