How do you read from standard in using PHP?

[ppowell]

I wrote a PHP function that I thought would always allow me to read from standard in, however, it fails when using PHP 4.3.8 - PHP 5.0.4 using Fedora Core 4.

 function &getResponse() {

/*----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
	New 8/12/2005: If constant STDIN exists, a constant data-input stream exists and there is no
	need to open an input stream.  Retrieve from there and return.  Only available in PHP 4.3+
	to PHP 5+ and if STDIN consists of a valid constant input stream
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------*/	
$version = trim(substr(exec('php -v'), 3, 8));
if ((preg_match('/^4\.[3-9]/', $version) || preg_match('/^5\.[0-9]/', $version)) && STDIN) {
 $response = trim(@fgets(STDIN, 256));
 return $response;
}

/*----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
	New 7/29/2005: Windows can use STDIN, however, the 'con' input data stream, i.e. 'console',
	is built into DOS functionality and produces a better data input stream result.  Use that
	for Windows.  If this stream is not available or if you are using UNIX, you will simply
	open using STDIN by default
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------*/	
if ($_ENV['windir'] || $_SERVER['windir']) $responseID = @fopen('con', 'rb');
if (!$responseID) $responseID = @fopen('php://stdin', 'r') or die('Cannot read stdin: ' . STDERR);
if ($responseID) {
 while (($response = @fgets($responseID, 1024)) !== false) {
  @fclose($responseID);
  return $response;
 }
 return "\n";	// DEFAULT SINCE NOTHING COULD BE OBTAINED
}
return "\n";	// DEFAULT SINCE NOTHING COULD BE OBTAINED
  }

This is literally preventing a launch of any of my applications and I desparately need help.

Thanx
Phil

[MHeys]

You are way off. You are not properly setting the C:XDIA values.

[ppowell]

What on earth are you talking about???? WHAT????

Phil

[Weedpacket]

Works for me, but then this is a Windows box. Commenting out the line that checks the environment I of course get a notice about an uninitialized variable, but it still works.

That first test you've got there. Have you tried [man]is_defined[/man], [man]php_version[/man], and [man]version_compare[/man]?

[ppowell]

Bypassing the "C:XDIA values" solution (filing that under "Useless Smartarse Diatribe (USD)")

What I wound up doing was versioning the code so that I figured that only machines that populated STDIN with a value along with the apparent behavior of PHP inasmuch as version 4.3.3+ was ok with STDIN and anything less than that was not:

  function &getResponse() {

/*----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
	New 8/12/2005: If constant STDIN exists, a constant data-input stream exists and there is no
	need to open an input stream.  Retrieve from there and return.  Only available in PHP 4.3.3+
	to PHP 5+ and if STDIN consists of a valid constant input stream
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------*/	
$version = trim(substr(preg_replace('/[\n\r]+/', ' ', shell_exec('php -v')), 3, 6));
if ((preg_match('/^4\.3\.[3-9]+/', $version) || preg_match('/^4\.[4-9]\.[0-9]+/', $version) || preg_match('/^5\.[0-9]/', $version)) && 
    is_resource(STDIN)
   ) {
 $response = trim(@fgets(STDIN, 256));
 return $response;
}

/*----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
	New 7/29/2005: Windows can use STDIN, however, the 'con' input data stream, i.e. 'console',
	is built into DOS functionality and produces a better data input stream result.  Use that
	for Windows.  If this stream is not available or if you are using UNIX, you will simply
	open using STDIN by default
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------*/	
if ($_ENV['windir'] || $_SERVER['windir']) $responseID = @fopen('con', 'rb');
if (!$responseID) $responseID = @fopen('php://stdin', 'r') or die('Cannot read stdin: ' . STDERR);
if ($responseID) {
 while (($response = @fgets($responseID, 1024)) !== false) {
  @fclose($responseID);
  return $response;
 }
 return "\n";	// DEFAULT SINCE NOTHING COULD BE OBTAINED
}
return "\n";	// DEFAULT SINCE NOTHING COULD BE OBTAINED
  }

Thanx once again for your help (might still need it to see if this function is still accurate or needlessly versioned)

Phil