Continuous data handling through TCP

Question

I need to handle continuous data through TCP and write it to database. I use the following code (suggested by ZZ Coder):

<?php

$fp = fsockopen ("192.168.0.179", 2323);

    if (!$fp) {
        die ("$errstr ($errno)");
    }

    if ($fp) {

$user="root";
$password="12345";
$database="db_name";
mysql_connect('localhost',$user,$password);
@mysql_select_db($database) or die( "Unable to select database");

    $point=false;
    $status="";
    $fix=0;
    while (!$point) {
        $string=@fgets($fp, 4096);

    switch (substr($string,0,6)) {
        case "\$GPRMC" :
        list($sentence, $time, $status, $latitude, $NS, $longitude, $EW, $speed, $course, $date, $magvar, $magvarEW)= explode(",", trim($string));
        mysql_query("INSERT INTO gps_data (time, course) VALUES ('$time', '$course')");
        break;

        case "\$GPGGA" :
        list($sentence, $time, $latitude, $NS, $longitude, $EW, $fix, $nbsat, $HDOP, $altitude,,,,,)= explode(",", trim($string));
        break;

        default :
        break;
    }

        if ($status=="A" and $fix == 1){
            $point=true;
        }
    }

    fclose ($fp);
    mysql_close();

    }

    else {
        print "Fatal error\n";
    }

?>

Questions

1. How do I start and stop this server?

2. How do I make it work nonstop (hours/days/weeks) because right now it stops executing at some point.

3. What happens if 10/20/100/1000 trackers connect and start sending data to 192.168.0.179:2323 (server)?

Answer 1

Regarding 2:

The following lines of code

if ($status=="A" and $fix == 1){
        $point=true;
}

seems to cause it to break from the while loop when the GPS acquired a lock. If that is the case your program will stop when the GPS acquired a lock.

Answer 2

1. You need to run the program using the PHP command line tool, i.e. /usr/bin/php server.php. To stop it, kill it with kill(1).
2. As Shawn Hsiao writes: the program terminates when it gets the terminate command from the server.
3. You only provide the code of the client, not of the server, so it is difficult to tell. However, in general, there is nothing wrong with having hundreds of clients connect to a single server.