Why does fgets(STDIN, 1024) not work anymore?

Question

Question 1

I used to use that line for my PHP parser file for a game server, but it does not work anymore. I know there is the fopen("php://stdin") thing but that's now 3 lines of code instead of just one, why would PHP do this?

Question 2

Also, when I use that method I keep getting this output which is causing my script to not read the commands the parser outputs, how can I stop it?

X-Powered-By: PHP/5.2.12
Content-type: text/html

I tried setting Content-Type to text/plain and it didn't do anything...
Here's the base code:

#!/usr/bin/php
<?php

while (1):
    $line = rtrim(fgets(STDIN, 1024));
    $line = explode(" ", $line);
    switch ($line[0]):
        // NEW_ROUND <date> <time>
        // PLAYER_ENTERED <nice_name> <ip> <real_name>
        case "PLAYER_ENTERED":
            print "PLAYER_MESSAGE {$line[1]} WELCOME TO TRONNERS!\n";
            break;
        // PLAYER_LEFT <nice_name> <ip>
        // RACE_DONE
        case "RACE_DONE":
            print "CONSOLE_MESSAGE RACING TIMEKEEPER COMING SOON!\n";
            break;
        // ROUND_COMMENCING <round> <max_rounds>
        case "ROUND_COMMENCING":
            print "CENTER_MESSAGE What's the name of this map?\n";
            break;
    endswitch;
endwhile;

?>

I'm using a tail to keep lines being posted to a file going into the PHP parser and then the output from the parsed is being sent to another commands file via tee.

Answer 1

I can't understand your first question, but on the second one if you want to suppress headers, just add a -q parameter.

#!/usr/bin/php -q 

Answer 2

You are using the *-cgi binary from the command line, which I wouldn't recommend. Use the CLI one if available. See where the symbolic link in /usr/bin/php actually goes.

edit: aha, here it is in the manual, only valid for CLI:

http://www.php.net/manual/en/features.commandline.io-streams.php

$ echo  '<?php echo fread(STDIN,123); ?>' > r.php
$ echo 'bla' | php5-cgi -q -d html_errors=off r.php 
Warning: fread() expects parameter 1 to be resource, string given in /tmp/r.php on line 1
Call Stack:
    0.0002     330080   1. {main}() /tmp/r.php:0
    0.0002     330260   2. fread() /tmp/r.php:1

$ echo 'bla' | php r.php 
bla

Under debian it could likely be fixed by the following (don't know about other *nix flavors):

update-alternatives --config php

For building from source the manual explains what happens: http://nl.php.net/manual/en/features.commandline.introduction.php

Answer 3

Question 2 was answered by Ehsan so ill have a go at Question 1.

Just had a look at the Changlog for Fgets and theres been no changes since 4.2, so im not sure how you managed to read a stream without opening a handle before hand.

Version  Description
4.3.0      fgets() is now binary safe
4.2.0      The length parameter became optional

anyways it seems like you want to read the stream with one line, have your tried the following.

file("php://stdin");