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# Streams Basics

Using streams is very much like using ANSI stdio functions. The main difference is in how you obtain the stream handle to begin with. In most cases, you will use php_stream_open_wrapper() to obtain the stream handle. This function works very much like fopen, as can be seen from the example below:

Example 43-1. simple stream example that displays the PHP home page
    php_stream * stream = php_stream_open_wrapper("http://www.php.net", "rb", REPORT_ERRORS, NULL);
    if (stream) {
        while(!php_stream_eof(stream)) {
            char buf[1024];

            if (php_stream_gets(stream, buf, sizeof(buf))) {
                printf(buf);
            } else {
                break;
            }
        }
        php_stream_close(stream);
    }

The table below shows the Streams equivalents of the more common ANSI stdio functions. Unless noted otherwise, the semantics of the functions are identical.

Table 43-1. ANSI stdio equivalent functions in the Streams API

ANSI Stdio Function | PHP Streams Function | Notes
--- | --- | ---
fopen | php_stream_open_wrapper | Streams includes additional parameters
fclose | php_stream_close |
fgets | php_stream_gets |
fread | php_stream_read | The nmemb parameter is assumed to have a value of 1, so the prototype looks more like read(2)
fwrite | php_stream_write | The nmemb parameter is assumed to have a value of 1, so the prototype looks more like write(2)
fseek | php_stream_seek |
ftell | php_stream_tell |
rewind | php_stream_rewind |
feof | php_stream_eof |
fgetc | php_stream_getc |
fputc | php_stream_putc |
fflush | php_stream_flush |
puts | php_stream_puts | Same semantics as puts, NOT fputs
fstat | php_stream_stat | Streams has a richer stat structure

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