Question

I’m writing an script that is able to read from stdin and then request for confirmation.

<?php
$stream = fopen('php://stdin', 'r');
$input = fgets($stream, 1024);
$confirmation = readline('Are you sure?');
if ( $confirmation == 'y' )
    /* Do dangerous stuff */

When I run it directly:

$ php script.php
inputdata
^D
Are you sure?

But I’m trying to run it using a file as STDIN. In that case, readline() returns false and no confirmation is prompted.

$ php script.php < data.txt

or

$ echo "foobar" | php script.php

How can I read both from the STDIN and keyboard when invoking this script in this way?

Thanks.

Answer 1

Use fgetc function with STDIN. See example bellow.

$input = fgets(STDIN, 1024);
echo "\nAre you sure?\n";
$conf = fgetc(STDIN);
if($conf=='y'){
        echo "Great! Lets go ahead\n";
}else{
        echo "Okay, May be next time\n";
}

Console output

Sample 1

    $ echo 'data
    > y
    > ' | php php_readline.php

    Are you sure? 
    Great! Lets go ahead

Sample 2

$ php php_readline.php 
Some data

Are you sure?
n
Okay, May be next time