Note that reading from a regular file which is on end-of-file will *not* block. You'll get a non-blocking, zero-byte read.  However, stream_select *will* block if the input is a pipe, and there is no more data to be had.

When stream_select() fails you SHOULD NOT use the results of the arrays (i.e. read, write, except) that were passed into it as parameters. While doing so anyway won't trigger undefined behaviour, you are depending on unspecified behaviour that by definition is not guaranteed.

At the time of writing the PHP 7.2 interpreter does not modify the arrays upon stream_select() failure (see the code around https://github.com/php/php-src/blob/php-7.2.14/ext/standard/streamsfuncs.c#L842) thus a PHP program that doesn't heed the advice above can deceive itself as to the state of those streams.

(Hopefully this warning can be added to the main documentation one day)

Maintaining connection with multiple clients can be tricky, PHP script is single-thread process, so if you like to do more than one thing at once (like waiting for new connections and waiting for new data), you’ll have to use some sort of multiplexing. 

<?php
$socket = stream_socket_server("tcp://0.0.0.0:8000", $errno, $errstr, STREAM_SERVER_BIND | STREAM_SERVER_LISTEN);
stream_set_blocking($socket, 0);

$connections = [];
$read = [];
$write = null;
$except = null;

while (1) {

    // look for new connections
    if ($c = @stream_socket_accept($socket, empty($connections) ? -1 : 0, $peer)) {
        echo $peer.' connected'.PHP_EOL;
        fwrite($c, 'Hello '.$peer.PHP_EOL);
        $connections[$peer] = $c;
    }

    // wait for any stream data
    $read = $connections;
    if (stream_select($read, $write, $except, 5)) {

        foreach ($read as $c) {
            $peer = stream_socket_get_name($c, true);

            if (feof($c)) {
                echo 'Connection closed '.$peer.PHP_EOL;
                fclose($c);
                unset($connections[$peer]);
            } else {
                $contents = fread($c, 1024);
                echo $peer.': '.trim($contents).PHP_EOL;
            }
        }
    }
}
?>

If you want to set an absolute maximum execution time for stream_select in a loop, it's important to decrement the max_time value passed to stream_select.

<?php
// The maximum time for execution in milliseconds
$maxtime = 200000;
// The time the loop started
$starttime = microtime(true);
// Original array of sockets
$r = $orig_sockets;

// The function to calculate the timeout
function calctimeout($maxtime, $starttime)
{
    return $maxtime - ((microtime(true) - $starttime) * 1000000);
}

while (stream_select($r, $w = null, $e = null, 0, calctimeout($maxtime, $starttime)) !== 0)
{
    // loop through the sockets that showed activity
    foreach ($r as $socket) {
        // $socket talked
    }

    // stream_select modifies the contents of $r
    // in a loop we should replace it with the original
    $r = $orig_sockets;
}

?>

Note that you should change the calctimeout function below to divide the outcome by 1.000.000 otherwise you'll be waiting for two years instead of one minute for the socket to timeout...

<?php

// The function to calculate the timeout
function calctimeout($maxtime, $starttime)
{
   return ($maxtime - ((microtime(true) - $starttime) * 1000000))/1000000;
}

?>

Make sure not to pass the same variable in the 3 arguments to stream_select, or you'll only get the results from one of them and the others will be overwritten.

If you're getting unexplainable problems with nonblocking sockets using stream_select, disable the buffers using:

stream_set_read_buffer($socket, 0);
stream_set_write_buffer($socket, 0);

For some reason when writing (in total) ~256k, sockets start returning FALSE when reading, yet always appear in the stream_select arrays. This fixed that problem. (for us.)

Please note that, on return, the key of "read" will be zero based, serially numbered according to the streams for which there is read data ready only. In other words, if you want to know which of the original streams placed in "read" is ready, there is no immediate way of knowing that.

If you want to know which of the original stream is which, you can either use "==", or possibly set a reverse map array, in which the stream is the key, and the key to the original "read" array is the data.

If you try to use stream_select() with fread(), you may get bit by a combination of bugs (https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=52602 and https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=51056). As of PHP 5.5.10, fread() and stream_select() don't reliably play well together.

If you need stream_select() and you don't need an encrypted connection (e.g. TLS), use stream_socket_recvfrom() instead of fread().

I can't find a way to reliably handle an encrypted connection with blocking functions in PHP; non-blocking might be the only way to do it.

You can key on file descriptors just fine by casting them to an int or a string, which returns what you would expect.

stream_select() looks deceptively like a simple wrapper around POSIX select(2).

But beware: while select(2) allows you to pass no file descriptors and use it as a "portable subsecond sleep", PHP will complain with "Warning: stream_select(): No stream arrays were passed in ****" if all arrays are empty or null, and it WONT sleep, it will return immediately. So... if the number of file descriptors you have isn't static, you have to deal with the special case yourself.

If you use stream_select() with a blocking stream, you are doing it wrong!

Just because this function returns something in one or more of the arrays does NOT mean that a future read or write operation will not block.

The above sentence is the most important sentence you will ever read regarding stream manipulation.  Using stream_select() with blocking streams is a very common amateur mistake and causes major headaches when tracking down usage of this and similar select() system functions.  PHP (and really the underlying OS) should verify that the supplied stream set is not blocking and throw an error/exception if any socket is set to block so that people are forced to fix their code.  The documentation for stream_select() is, at best, misleading.

If you want a non-blocking stream, then set the stream to not block.  Otherwise, live with the blocking stream.  That is, after all, the whole point of blocking - to block indefinitely until the operation completes.  select() is built for non-blocking streams ONLY.  Any other use will result in very hard to track down bugs.

I got the above lecture many years ago after encountering the very bugs I mention.  I fixed my code and now correct similar mistakes when I run into the issue elsewhere.  Writing code for non-blocking streams is simpler than trying to write hacks for blocking streams with select() functions and ending up with application bugs.