Reads a maximum of length bytes from a socket socket_listen socket_recv Socket Functions PHP Manual socket_read (PHP 4 >= 4.0.7, PHP 5)socket_read — Reads a maximum of length bytes from a socket Description string socket_read ( resource $socket , int $length [, int $type ] ) The function socket_read() reads from the socket resource socket created by the socket_create() or socket_accept() functions. Parameters socket A valid socket resource created with socket_create() or socket_accept(). length The maximum number of bytes read is specified by the length parameter. Otherwise you can use \r, \n, or \0 to end reading (depending on the type parameter, see below). type Optional type parameter is a named constant: PHP_BINARY_READ (Default) - use the system recv() function. Safe for reading binary data. PHP_NORMAL_READ - reading stops at \n or \r. Return Values socket_read() returns the data as a string on success, or FALSE on error (including if the remote host has closed the connection). The error code can be retrieved with socket_last_error(). This code may be passed to socket_strerror() to get a textual representation of the error. Note: socket_read() returns a zero length string ("") when there is no more data to read. ChangeLog Version Description 4.1.0 The default value for type was changed from PHP_NORMAL_READ to PHP_BINARY_READ See Also socket_accept() socket_bind() socket_connect() socket_listen() socket_last_error() socket_strerror() socket_write() socket_listen socket_recv Socket Functions PHP Manual