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socket_create

(PHP 4 >= 4.1.0, PHP 5, PHP 7, PHP 8)

socket_createCreate a socket (endpoint for communication)

Description

socket_create(int $domain, int $type, int $protocol): Socket|false

Creates and returns a Socket instance, also referred to as an endpoint of communication. A typical network connection is made up of 2 sockets, one performing the role of the client, and another performing the role of the server.

Parameters

domain

The domain parameter specifies the protocol family to be used by the socket.

Available address/protocol families
Domain Description
AF_INET IPv4 Internet based protocols. TCP and UDP are common protocols of this protocol family.
AF_INET6 IPv6 Internet based protocols. TCP and UDP are common protocols of this protocol family.
AF_UNIX Local communication protocol family. High efficiency and low overhead make it a great form of IPC (Interprocess Communication).
type

The type parameter selects the type of communication to be used by the socket.

Available socket types
Type Description
SOCK_STREAM Provides sequenced, reliable, full-duplex, connection-based byte streams. An out-of-band data transmission mechanism may be supported. The TCP protocol is based on this socket type.
SOCK_DGRAM Supports datagrams (connectionless, unreliable messages of a fixed maximum length). The UDP protocol is based on this socket type.
SOCK_SEQPACKET Provides a sequenced, reliable, two-way connection-based data transmission path for datagrams of fixed maximum length; a consumer is required to read an entire packet with each read call.
SOCK_RAW Provides raw network protocol access. This special type of socket can be used to manually construct any type of protocol. A common use for this socket type is to perform ICMP requests (like ping).
SOCK_RDM Provides a reliable datagram layer that does not guarantee ordering. This is most likely not implemented on your operating system.
protocol

The protocol parameter sets the specific protocol within the specified domain to be used when communicating on the returned socket. The proper value can be retrieved by name by using getprotobyname(). If the desired protocol is TCP, or UDP the corresponding constants SOL_TCP, and SOL_UDP can also be used.

Common protocols
Name Description
icmp The Internet Control Message Protocol is used primarily by gateways and hosts to report errors in datagram communication. The "ping" command (present in most modern operating systems) is an example application of ICMP.
udp The User Datagram Protocol is a connectionless, unreliable, protocol with fixed record lengths. Due to these aspects, UDP requires a minimum amount of protocol overhead.
tcp The Transmission Control Protocol is a reliable, connection based, stream oriented, full duplex protocol. TCP guarantees that all data packets will be received in the order in which they were sent. If any packet is somehow lost during communication, TCP will automatically retransmit the packet until the destination host acknowledges that packet. For reliability and performance reasons, the TCP implementation itself decides the appropriate octet boundaries of the underlying datagram communication layer. Therefore, TCP applications must allow for the possibility of partial record transmission.

Return Values

socket_create() returns a Socket instance on success, or false on error. The actual error code can be retrieved by calling socket_last_error(). This error code may be passed to socket_strerror() to get a textual explanation of the error.

Errors/Exceptions

If an invalid domain or type is given, socket_create() defaults to AF_INET and SOCK_STREAM respectively and additionally emits an E_WARNING message.

Changelog

Version Description
8.0.0 On success, this function returns a Socket instance now; previously, a resource was returned.

See Also

add a note

User Contributed Notes 12 notes

up
42
kyle gibson
19 years ago
Took me about 20 minutes to figure out the proper arguments to supply for a AF_UNIX socket. Anything else, and I would get a PHP warning about the 'type' not being supported. I hope this saves someone else time.

<?php
$socket
= socket_create(AF_UNIX, SOCK_STREAM, 0);
// code
?>
up
12
rhollencamp at gmail dot com
15 years ago
Note that if you create a socket with AF_UNIX, a file will be created in the filesystem. This file is not removed when you call socket_close - you should unlink the file after you close the socket.
up
8
ab1965 at yandex dot ru
12 years ago
It took some time to understand how one PHP process can communicate with another by means of unix udp sockets. Examples of 'server' and 'client' code are given below. Server is assumed to run before client starts.

'Server' code
<?php
if (!extension_loaded('sockets')) {
die(
'The sockets extension is not loaded.');
}
// create unix udp socket
$socket = socket_create(AF_UNIX, SOCK_DGRAM, 0);
if (!
$socket)
die(
'Unable to create AF_UNIX socket');

// same socket will be used in recv_from and send_to
$server_side_sock = dirname(__FILE__)."/server.sock";
if (!
socket_bind($socket, $server_side_sock))
die(
"Unable to bind to $server_side_sock");

while(
1) // server never exits
{
// receive query
if (!socket_set_block($socket))
die(
'Unable to set blocking mode for socket');
$buf = '';
$from = '';
echo
"Ready to receive...\n";
// will block to wait client query
$bytes_received = socket_recvfrom($socket, $buf, 65536, 0, $from);
if (
$bytes_received == -1)
die(
'An error occured while receiving from the socket');
echo
"Received $buf from $from\n";

$buf .= "->Response"; // process client query here

// send response
if (!socket_set_nonblock($socket))
die(
'Unable to set nonblocking mode for socket');
// client side socket filename is known from client request: $from
$len = strlen($buf);
$bytes_sent = socket_sendto($socket, $buf, $len, 0, $from);
if (
$bytes_sent == -1)
die(
'An error occured while sending to the socket');
else if (
$bytes_sent != $len)
die(
$bytes_sent . ' bytes have been sent instead of the ' . $len . ' bytes expected');
echo
"Request processed\n";
}
?>

'Client' code
<?php
if (!extension_loaded('sockets')) {
die(
'The sockets extension is not loaded.');
}
// create unix udp socket
$socket = socket_create(AF_UNIX, SOCK_DGRAM, 0);
if (!
$socket)
die(
'Unable to create AF_UNIX socket');

// same socket will be later used in recv_from
// no binding is required if you wish only send and never receive
$client_side_sock = dirname(__FILE__)."/client.sock";
if (!
socket_bind($socket, $client_side_sock))
die(
"Unable to bind to $client_side_sock");

// use socket to send data
if (!socket_set_nonblock($socket))
die(
'Unable to set nonblocking mode for socket');
// server side socket filename is known apriori
$server_side_sock = dirname(__FILE__)."/server.sock";
$msg = "Message";
$len = strlen($msg);
// at this point 'server' process must be running and bound to receive from serv.sock
$bytes_sent = socket_sendto($socket, $msg, $len, 0, $server_side_sock);
if (
$bytes_sent == -1)
die(
'An error occured while sending to the socket');
else if (
$bytes_sent != $len)
die(
$bytes_sent . ' bytes have been sent instead of the ' . $len . ' bytes expected');

// use socket to receive data
if (!socket_set_block($socket))
die(
'Unable to set blocking mode for socket');
$buf = '';
$from = '';
// will block to wait server response
$bytes_received = socket_recvfrom($socket, $buf, 65536, 0, $from);
if (
$bytes_received == -1)
die(
'An error occured while receiving from the socket');
echo
"Received $buf from $from\n";

// close socket and delete own .sock file
socket_close($socket);
unlink($client_side_sock);
echo
"Client exits\n";
?>
up
5
geoff at spacevs dot com
14 years ago
Here is a ping function for PHP without using exec/system/passthrough/etc... Very useful to use to just test if a host is online before attempting to connect to it. Timeout is in seconds.

<?PHP
function ping($host, $timeout = 1) {
/* ICMP ping packet with a pre-calculated checksum */
$package = "\x08\x00\x7d\x4b\x00\x00\x00\x00PingHost";
$socket = socket_create(AF_INET, SOCK_RAW, 1);
socket_set_option($socket, SOL_SOCKET, SO_RCVTIMEO, array('sec' => $timeout, 'usec' => 0));
socket_connect($socket, $host, null);

$ts = microtime(true);
socket_send($socket, $package, strLen($package), 0);
if (
socket_read($socket, 255))
$result = microtime(true) - $ts;
else
$result = false;
socket_close($socket);

return
$result;
}
?>
up
1
Jean Charles MAMMANA
16 years ago
I've written the ping() function using socket_create() with SOCK_RAW.
(on Unix System, you need to have the root acces to execute this function)

<?php

/// start ping.inc.php ///

$g_icmp_error = "No Error";

// timeout in ms
function ping($host, $timeout)
{
$port = 0;
$datasize = 64;
global
$g_icmp_error;
$g_icmp_error = "No Error";
$ident = array(ord('J'), ord('C'));
$seq = array(rand(0, 255), rand(0, 255));

$packet = '';
$packet .= chr(8); // type = 8 : request
$packet .= chr(0); // code = 0

$packet .= chr(0); // checksum init
$packet .= chr(0); // checksum init

$packet .= chr($ident[0]); // identifier
$packet .= chr($ident[1]); // identifier

$packet .= chr($seq[0]); // seq
$packet .= chr($seq[1]); // seq

for ($i = 0; $i < $datasize; $i++)
$packet .= chr(0);

$chk = icmpChecksum($packet);

$packet[2] = $chk[0]; // checksum init
$packet[3] = $chk[1]; // checksum init

$sock = socket_create(AF_INET, SOCK_RAW, getprotobyname('icmp'));
$time_start = microtime();
socket_sendto($sock, $packet, strlen($packet), 0, $host, $port);


$read = array($sock);
$write = NULL;
$except = NULL;

$select = socket_select($read, $write, $except, 0, $timeout * 1000);
if (
$select === NULL)
{
$g_icmp_error = "Select Error";
socket_close($sock);
return -
1;
}
elseif (
$select === 0)
{
$g_icmp_error = "Timeout";
socket_close($sock);
return -
1;
}

$recv = '';
$time_stop = microtime();
socket_recvfrom($sock, $recv, 65535, 0, $host, $port);
$recv = unpack('C*', $recv);

if (
$recv[10] !== 1) // ICMP proto = 1
{
$g_icmp_error = "Not ICMP packet";
socket_close($sock);
return -
1;
}

if (
$recv[21] !== 0) // ICMP response = 0
{
$g_icmp_error = "Not ICMP response";
socket_close($sock);
return -
1;
}

if (
$ident[0] !== $recv[25] || $ident[1] !== $recv[26])
{
$g_icmp_error = "Bad identification number";
socket_close($sock);
return -
1;
}

if (
$seq[0] !== $recv[27] || $seq[1] !== $recv[28])
{
$g_icmp_error = "Bad sequence number";
socket_close($sock);
return -
1;
}

$ms = ($time_stop - $time_start) * 1000;

if (
$ms < 0)
{
$g_icmp_error = "Response too long";
$ms = -1;
}

socket_close($sock);

return
$ms;
}

function
icmpChecksum($data)
{
$bit = unpack('n*', $data);
$sum = array_sum($bit);

if (
strlen($data) % 2) {
$temp = unpack('C*', $data[strlen($data) - 1]);
$sum += $temp[1];
}

$sum = ($sum >> 16) + ($sum & 0xffff);
$sum += ($sum >> 16);

return
pack('n*', ~$sum);
}

function
getLastIcmpError()
{
global
$g_icmp_error;
return
$g_icmp_error;
}
/// end ping.inc.php ///
?>
up
-1
alexander dot krause at ed-solutions dot de
16 years ago
On UNIX systems php needs /etc/protocols for constants like SOL_UDP and SOL_TCP.

This file was missing on my embedded platform.
up
-1
jens at surefoot dot com
18 years ago
Please be aware that RAW sockets (as used for the ping example) are restricted to root accounts on *nix systems. Since web servers hardly ever run as root, they won't work on webpages.

On Windows based servers it should work regardless.
up
-1
evan at coeus hyphen group dot com
22 years ago
Okay I talked with Richard a little (via e-mail). We agree that getprotobyname() and using the constants should be the same in functionality and speed, the use of one or the other is merely coding style. Personally, we both think the constants are prettier :).

The eight different protocols are the ones implemented in PHP- not the total number in existance (RFC 1340 has 98).

All we disagree on is using 0- Richard says that "accordning to the official unix/bsd sockets 0 is more than fine." I think that since 0 is a reserved number according to RFC 1320, and when used usually refers to IP, not one of it's sub-protocols (TCP, UDP, etc.)
up
-4
david at eder dot us
20 years ago
Seems there aren't any examples of UDP clients out there. This is a tftp client. I hope this makes someone's life easier.

<?php
function tftp_fetch($host, $filename)
{
$socket = socket_create(AF_INET, SOCK_DGRAM, SOL_UDP);

// create the request packet
$packet = chr(0) . chr(1) . $filename . chr(0) . 'octet' . chr(0);
// UDP is connectionless, so we just send on it.
socket_sendto($socket, $packet, strlen($packet), 0x100, $host, 69);

$buffer = '';
$port = '';
$ret = '';
do
{
// $buffer and $port both come back with information for the ack
// 516 = 4 bytes for the header + 512 bytes of data
socket_recvfrom($socket, $buffer, 516, 0, $host, $port);

// add the block number from the data packet to the ack packet
$packet = chr(0) . chr(4) . substr($buffer, 2, 2);
// send ack
socket_sendto($socket, $packet, strlen($packet), 0, $host, $port);

// append the data to the return variable
// for large files this function should take a file handle as an arg
$ret .= substr($buffer, 4);
}
while(
strlen($buffer) == 516); // the first non-full packet is the last.
return $ret;
}
?>
up
-3
Anonymous
18 years ago
Here's a ping function that uses sockets instead of exec(). Note: I was unable to get socket_create() to work without running from CLI as root. I've already calculated the package's checksum to simplify the code (the message is 'ping' but it doesn't actually matter).

<?php

function ping($host) {
$package = "\x08\x00\x19\x2f\x00\x00\x00\x00\x70\x69\x6e\x67";

/* create the socket, the last '1' denotes ICMP */
$socket = socket_create(AF_INET, SOCK_RAW, 1);

/* set socket receive timeout to 1 second */
socket_set_option($socket, SOL_SOCKET, SO_RCVTIMEO, array("sec" => 1, "usec" => 0));

/* connect to socket */
socket_connect($socket, $host, null);

/* record start time */
list($start_usec, $start_sec) = explode(" ", microtime());
$start_time = ((float) $start_usec + (float) $start_sec);

socket_send($socket, $package, strlen($package), 0);

if(@
socket_read($socket, 255)) {
list(
$end_usec, $end_sec) = explode(" ", microtime());
$end_time = ((float) $end_usec + (float) $end_sec);

$total_time = $end_time - $start_time;

return
$total_time;
} else {
return
false;
}

socket_close($socket);
}

?>
up
-5
david at eder dot us
19 years ago
Sometimes when you are running CLI, you need to know your own ip address.

<?php

$addr
= my_ip();
echo
"my ip address is $addr\n";

function
my_ip($dest='64.0.0.0', $port=80)
{
$socket = socket_create(AF_INET, SOCK_DGRAM, SOL_UDP);
socket_connect($socket, $dest, $port);
socket_getsockname($socket, $addr, $port);
socket_close($socket);
return
$addr;
}
?>
up
-4
Sakrizz
8 years ago
Here's a solution for icmpv6 ping with php, dropping it here in case if someone has problems with icmpv6 with php.

<?php
$host
= "2a03:2880:f11b:83:face:b00c:0:25de";
$timeout = 100000;
$count = 3;
echo
"Latency: ". round(1000 * pingv6($host,$timeout,$count),5) ." ms \n";

function
pingv6($target,$timeout,$count) {
echo
"target is ipv6 address, ". getprotobyname('ipv6-icmp'). " \n";
/* create the socket, the last '1' denotes ICMP */
$socket = socket_create(AF_INET6, SOCK_RAW, getprotobyname('ipv6-icmp'));
/* set socket receive timeout to 1 second */
$sec=intval($timeout/1000);
$usec=$timeout%1000*1000;
socket_set_option($socket, SOL_SOCKET, SO_RCVTIMEO, array("sec"=>$sec, "usec"=>$usec));
/* socket package parameters */
$type = "\x80";
$seqNumber = chr(floor($i/256)%256) . chr($i%256);
$checksum= "\x00\x00";
$code = "\x00";
$identifier = chr(rand(0,255)) . chr(rand(0,255));
$msg = "!\"#$%&'()*+,-./1234567";
$package = $type.$code.$checksum.$identifier.$seqNumber.$msg;
$checksum = icmpChecksum($package);
$package = $type.$code.$checksum.$identifier.$seqNumber.$msg;
/* socket connect */
if(@socket_connect($socket, $target, null)){
for(
$i = 0; $i < $count; $i++){
list(
$start_usec, $start_sec) = explode(" ", microtime());
$start_time = ((float) $start_usec + (float) $start_sec);
$startTime = microtime(true);
socket_send($socket, $package, strLen($package), 0);
while (
$startTime + $timeout*1000 > microtime(true)){
if(
socket_read($socket, 255) !== false) {
list(
$end_usec, $end_sec) = explode(" ", microtime());
$end_time = ((float) $end_usec + (float) $end_sec);
$total_time = $end_time - $start_time;
echo
"round trip time (".$i."): ". $total_time ."\n";
return
$total_time;
break;
}else{
return
"null";
echo
"Timed out (".$i."), Got no echo reply\n";
break;
}
}
usleep($interval*1000);
}
socket_close($socket);
}
}

function
icmpChecksum($data){
if (
strlen($data)%2) $data .= "\x00";
$bit = unpack('n*', $data);
$sum = array_sum($bit);
while (
$sum >> 16)
$sum = ($sum >> 16) + ($sum & 0xffff);
return
pack('n*', ~$sum);
}

?>
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