Last updated: Fri, 06 Nov 2009

stream_wrapper_register

(PHP 4 >= 4.3.2, PHP 5)

stream_wrapper_register — Register a URL wrapper implemented as a PHP class

Description

bool stream_wrapper_register ( string $protocol , string $classname [, int $flags = 0 ] )

Allows you to implement your own protocol handlers and streams for use with all the other filesystem functions (such as fopen(), fread() etc.).

Parameters

protocol: The wrapper name to be registered.
classname: The classname which implements the protocol .
flags: Should be set to STREAM_IS_URL if protocol is a URL protocol. Default is 0, local stream.

Return Values

Returns TRUE on success or FALSE on failure.

stream_wrapper_register() will return FALSE if the protocol already has a handler.

Changelog

Version	Description
5.2.4	Added the `flags` parameter.

Examples

Example #1 How to register a stream wrapper


<?php
$existed = in_array("var", stream_get_wrappers());
if ($existed) {
    stream_wrapper_unregister("var");
}
stream_wrapper_register("var", "VariableStream");
$myvar = "";

$fp = fopen("var://myvar", "r+");

fwrite($fp, "line1\n");
fwrite($fp, "line2\n");
fwrite($fp, "line3\n");

rewind($fp);
while (!feof($fp)) {
    echo fgets($fp);
}
fclose($fp);
var_dump($myvar);

if ($existed) {
    stream_wrapper_restore("var");
}

?>

The above example will output:

line1
line2
line3
string(18) "line1
line2
line3
"


Actually, I don't know if there's a better way to figure out if stream_read() was called by fgets() or e.g. fread() than this one:



    public function stream_read($count)

    {

        $bt = debug_backtrace();

        if(($bt[0]['function'] == 'stream_read') &&

           ($bt[1]['function'] == 'fgets'))

        {

                $pos = strpos($GLOBALS[$this->varname], "\n", $this->position);

                $retval = substr($GLOBALS[$this->varname], $this->position, ($pos > $count) ? $count : $pos+1);



        }

        else

        {

                $retval = substr($GLOBALS[$this->varname], $this->position, $count);



        }

                $this->position += strlen($retval);

                return (string)$retval;

    }

Rick Hodger
20-Dec-2007 07:47


I have created a POP3 stream wrapper, available at http://www.potato-people.com/code/pop3.stream/

yeiniel at gmail dot com
15-Oct-2007 10:30


on using dir_opendir on PHP5 make sure you not return a resource object on success. A resource object is diferent from false but php make a cast to bool to dir_opendir return value and modify the value of your resource to 1. 



example:



class myclass{

  private $mysqlHandler;

  public function dir_opendir(....)

  {

    $this->mysqlHandler = mysql_connect(....);

    return $this->mysqlHandler; //this is wrong, next

                                          //time you use 

                                          //$this->mysqlHandler

                                          // the value is 1

  }

}

vmvarela at gmail dot com
25-Sep-2007 12:34


I have written a new SMB Stream Wrapper for Unix systems using smbclient (SAMBA project).



http://freshmeat.net/smb4php

fordiman at gmail dot com
13-Aug-2007 08:59


Updated. I figured there's no need to store the variable name if we're dereferenceing; we can just store the pointer and not have to dereference in each function for brevity.



Also, I added the assertion that the stream is a string, since we're behaving basically like it has to be, and I changed the name to GlobalStream and global://, as that's a more descriptive moniker than VariableName/var://.

<?php

class GlobalStream {

    private $pos;

    private $stream;

    public function stream_open($path, $mode, $options, &$opened_path) {

        $url = parse_url($path);

        $this->stream = &$GLOBALS[$url["host"]];

        $this->pos = 0; 

        if (!is_string($this->stream)) return false;

        return true;

    }

    public function stream_read($count) {

        $p=&$this->pos;

        $ret = substr($this->stream, $this->pos, $count);

        $this->pos += strlen($ret);

        return $ret;

    }

    public function stream_write($data){

        $l=strlen($data);

        $this->stream = 

            substr($this->stream, 0, $this->pos) . 

            $data . 

            substr($this->stream, $this->pos += $l);

        return $l;

    }

    public function stream_tell() {

        return $this->pos;

    }

    public function stream_eof() {

        return $this->pos >= strlen($this->stream);

    }

    public function stream_seek($offset, $whence) {

        $l=strlen($this->stream);

        switch ($whence) {

            case SEEK_SET: $newPos = $offset; break;

            case SEEK_CUR: $newPos = $this->pos + $offset; break;

            case SEEK_END: $newPos = $l + $offset; break;

            default: return false;

        }

        $ret = ($newPos >=0 && $newPos <=$l);

        if ($ret) $this->pos=$newPos;

        return $ret;

    }

}

stream_wrapper_register('global', 'GlobalStream') or die('Failed to register protocol global://');



$myvar = "";

   

$fp = fopen("global://myvar", "r+");



fwrite($fp, "line1\n");

fwrite($fp, "line2\n");

fwrite($fp, "line3\n");



rewind($fp);

while (!feof($fp)) {

    echo fgets($fp);

}

fclose($fp);

var_dump($myvar);

?>

fordiman at gmail dot com
13-Aug-2007 08:32


Updated for PHP 5, and optimized for readability, low line count, and minimum memory use:



<?php

class VariableStream {

    private $position;

    private $varname;

    public function stream_open($path, $mode, $options, &$opened_path) {

        $url = parse_url($path);

        $this->varname = $url["host"];

        $this->position = 0; 

        return true;

    }

    public function stream_read($count) {

        $p=&$this->position;

        $ret = substr($GLOBALS[$this->varname], $p, $count);

        $p += strlen($ret);

        return $ret;

    }

    public function stream_write($data){

        $v=&$GLOBALS[$this->varname];

        $l=strlen($data);

        $p=&$this->position;

        $v = substr($v, 0, $p) . $data . substr($v, $p += $l);

        return $l;

    }

    public function stream_tell() {

        return $this->position;

    }

    public function stream_eof() {

        return $this->position >= strlen($GLOBALS[$this->varname]);

    }

    public function stream_seek($offset, $whence) {

        $l=strlen(&$GLOBALS[$this->varname]);

        $p=&$this->position;

        switch ($whence) {

            case SEEK_SET: $newPos = $offset; break;

            case SEEK_CUR: $newPos = $p + $offset; break;

            case SEEK_END: $newPos = $l + $offset; break;

            default: return false;

        }

        $ret = ($newPos >=0 && $newPos <=$l);

        if ($ret) $p=$newPos;

        return $ret;

    }

}

stream_wrapper_register("var", "VariableStream") 

or die("Failed to register protocol");



$myvar = "";

   

$fp = fopen("var://myvar", "r+");



fwrite($fp, "line1\n");

fwrite($fp, "line2\n");

fwrite($fp, "line3\n");



rewind($fp);

while (!feof($fp)) {

    echo fgets($fp);

}

fclose($fp);

var_dump($myvar);

?>

phpnet at povaddict dot com dot ar
10-Jun-2007 11:10


In response to Anonymouse at Coward dot com:



The manual says "Reading stops when up to length bytes have been read, [...] or (after opening userspace stream) when 8192 bytes have been read whichever comes first."



I tested it and fread($filehandle, 4096) returns 4096 bytes, so it's working as the manual says it should. You're right when you say "8192 bytes is always passed to stream_read as count", but that doesn't mean fread will return 8192 bytes. If you call fread twice with length 4096, PHP calls stream_read passing 8192 as count on the first fread, and doesn't call it on second fread. On both cases, fread returns the correct amount of bytes.



<?php



class VariableStream {

    var $position;

    var $varname;

  

    function stream_open($path, $mode, $options, &$opened_path)

    {

        $url = parse_url($path);

        $this->varname = $url["host"];

        $this->position = 0;

       

        return true;

    }



    function stream_read($count)

    {

        echo "stream_read called asking for $count bytes\n";

        $ret = substr($GLOBALS[$this->varname], $this->position, $count);

        $this->position += strlen($ret);

        return $ret;

    }



    function stream_eof()

    {

        return $this->position >= strlen($GLOBALS[$this->varname]);

    }



}



stream_wrapper_register("var", "VariableStream")

    or die("Failed to register protocol");



$myvar = "";

$l=range('a','z');

for($i=0;$i<65536;$i++) {

    $myvar .= $l[array_rand($l)];

}

   

$fp = fopen("var://myvar", "r+");



while (!feof($fp)) {

    $out = fread($fp,1000);

    echo "fread returned ",strlen($out)," bytes\n";

}



fclose($fp);



?>

Anonymouse at Coward dot com
27-Apr-2007 12:18


Use caution with writing code that may use stream wrappers with fread, as fread behaviour is 'inconsistent' with normal file operations because of the 8192 bytes internal buffer used by PHP ( >= 5.0.5 IIRC ).



ie:



fread($filehandle, filesize($filename))



will not work correctly if the file is larger than 8KB, it will only get you the first 8192 bytes. Also, it seems that:



fread($filehandle, 4096)



will still give you 8KB (if the file is larger than 8KB) as 8192 bytes is always passed to stream_read as count.



This makes it somewhat impossible to just 'drop in' a stream where normally a file would be used without taking special care. 



Yes, it IS mentioned in the documentation here if you read it really well, but I for one spent some time scratching my head over it, and looking at the bug tracker, I am not the only one. The dev's say this inconsistancy is a feature though, even if it does make stream wrappers pretty much useless 'out of the box'.



file_get_contents and stream_get_contents seem to work ok though.

none at your dot biz
10-Nov-2006 08:35


In case someone else starts scratching their head like I was, you should change the VariableStream::stream_eof() function to something like this:



   function stream_eof()

   {

       $eof = ($this->position >= strlen($GLOBALS[$this->varname]));

        if(version_compare(PHP_VERSION,'5.0','>=') && version_compare(PHP_VERSION,'5.1','<'))

        {

            $eof = !$eof;

        }

        return $eof;

   }



PHP 5.0 introduced a bug that wasn't fixed until 5.1

jhannus at php dot net
21-Jun-2005 10:37


It is worth noting that if your wrapper supports stream_flush() then when you flcose() your stream this function will be called prior to closing the stream.

cellog at php dot net
13-Apr-2005 10:45


If you plan to use your wrapper in a require_once you need to define stream_stat().  If you plan to allow any other tests like is_file()/is_dir(), you have to define url_stat().



stream_stat() must define the size of the file, or it will never be included.  url_stat() must define mode, or is_file()/is_dir()/is_executable(), and any of those functions affected by clearstatcache() simply won't work.



It's not documented, but directories must be a mode like 040777 (octal), and files a mode like 0100666.  If you wish the file to be executable, use 7s instead of 6s.  The last 3 digits are exactly the same thing as what you pass to chmod.  040000 defines a directory, and 0100000 defines a file.  It would be really helpful to add this to the official manual!

Hayley Watson
04-Apr-2005 02:07


The current URL standard is RFC 3986 - available at www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3986.txt

simon at firepages dot org
14-Apr-2004 01:53


using streams to use the ever useful fgetcsv() on a variable where explode() would not work (and would otherwise require regex(though that may be easier;)))



$explode_this="yak, llama, 'big llama', 'wobmat, with a comma in it', bandycoot";

 

<?php 

class csvstream{ 

   var $position;  

   var $varname;  

   function stream_open($path, $mode, $options, &$opened_path){  

       $url = parse_url($path);  

        $this->varname = $url['host'] ; 

       $this->position = 0;  

       return true; 

   } 

  function stream_read($count){  

       $ret = substr($GLOBALS[$this->varname], $this->position, $count);  

       $this->position += strlen($ret);  

       return $ret;  

   } 

  function stream_eof(){  

       return $this->position >= strlen($GLOBALS[$this->varname]);  

   }  

   function stream_tell(){  

       return $this->position;  

   }  

} 



   stream_wrapper_register("csvstr", "csvstream") ; 

   $str="yak, llama, 'big llama', 'wobmat, with a comma in it', bandycoot"; 



   $fp = fopen("csvstr://str", "r+");  

   print_r(fgetcsv($fp,100,",","'")); 



?>

add a note

stream_wrapper_restore

stream_supports_lock