posix_isatty

(PHP 4, PHP 5, PHP 7, PHP 8)

posix_isattyDetermine if a file descriptor is an interactive terminal

Description

posix_isatty(resource|int $file_descriptor): bool

Determines if the file descriptor file_descriptor refers to a valid terminal type device.

Parameters

file_descriptor

The file descriptor, which is expected to be either a file resource or an int. An int will be assumed to be a file descriptor that can be passed directly to the underlying system call.

Return Values

Returns true if file_descriptor is an open descriptor connected to a terminal and false otherwise.

Changelog

Version Description
8.4.0 Set errno (error number) to EBADF when the file descriptor/stream passed is invalid.
8.3.0 Type error E_WARNINGs are now raised for integer coercions following the usual PHP type coercion semantics.

See Also

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User Contributed Notes 2 notes

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hfuecks at phppatterns dot com
21 years ago
Can be useful to determine whether output is being piped elsewhere, for PHP shell scripts, for example;#!/usr/local/bin/php<?phpif ( !posix_isatty(STDOUT) ) {    fwrite(STDOUT, "Invalid TTY\n");    exit(2);}fwrite(STDOUT, "Enter you name\n");$name = fgets(STDIN);fwrite(STDOUT,"Hello $name\n");exit(0);?>If this script is like:script.php > outfileoutfile will contain "Invalid TTY"
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0
KEINOS
4 years ago
It's quite complicated to understand its movements. But it determines if the file_descriptor is open AND connected to a terminal.Thus, while receiving data from the STDIN, for example, it will return false.This move is useful to optionally pipe STDIN to a PHP script, to avoid hanging when nothing is from STDIN.<?php// Simply echoes the contents from STDIN if any// and "no stdin" if not.echo (posix_isatty(STDIN)) ? 'no stdin' . PHP_EOL : file_get_contents('php://stdin');?>
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