I'm not certain I'm following what is hard about supporting both.  socket_create()'s first argument allows you to choose to have this socket be an AF_INET or AF_INET6.  Unless you're attempting to pull information about a host wherein you can get all addresses about a host for a specific purpose a-la: http://www.logix.cz/michal/devel/various/getaddrinfo.c.xp

Could you expand your idea with some code examples of what you do now and how you propose a solution to visualize this some more?

That is indeed the point. Mostly I only have a hostname, not an IP address and knowing whether a hostname supports or requires IPv6 is hard to find out. It requires you to do your own DNS queries. There is no gethostbyname for IPv6 in PHP.

A simple socket wrapper could look something like this with getaddrinfo.

  <?php

  class Socket {
    private $address;
    private $socket;

    public function __construct(string $host, string $service) {
      $addresses = socket_addrinfo($host, $service, [
        "ai_family"=>PF_UNSPEC,
        "ai_socktype"=>SOCK_STREAM
      ]);
      if ($addresses === false) throw new Exception("host not found");
      $this->address = reset($addresses);
      $this->socket = socket_create(
        $address["ai_family"],
        $address["ai_socktype"],
        $address["ai_protocol"]
      );
      if (!$this->socket) throw new Exception("error creating socket");
    }

    public function bind() {
      socket_bind($this->socket, $this->address["ai_addr"]);
    }

    public function listen(int $backlog = 0) {
      socket_listen($this->socket, $backlog);
    }

    public function connect() {
      socket_connect($this->socket, $this->address["ai_addr"]);
    }

    // other socket stuff
  }

As an additional benefit you don't even need to know the port number you can just use the service name.

Oh perhaps it would have been a better example if the socket type hint would also by in the constructor.

I took a stab at this(https://github.com/bp1222/php-src/commit/785284cdbc8a46d7c1b07567bb0d06d348112684).  implementing a 

array socket_getaddrinfo(string $node, mixed $service[, array $hints])

This attempt returns an array of resources, each resource being a C addrinfo struct.  To use, I just made a socket_addrinfo_connect and socket_addrinfo_bind to accept the resource to connect/bind.

Although in your desired example, you'd want to just have an array of info from addrinfo returned, and you call create&connect/bind with returned variables.

Not sure if one would be preferable over the other, I would assume implementing your use would be better as it wouldn't require resources & would be a couple less functions declared.

I would indeed prefer an array to be returned rather then a resource with a additional functions. Otherwise great work!!

After playing around a bit I think the resource means is preferable.  I'm sure discussions on the merits of both will be raised though RFC process[1].  I feel the resource method is superior because it's the actual sockaddr structure behind it.  So if you do a getaddrinfo("127.0.0.1", "ssh", NULL), the sockaddr structure already has into it the correct port to use.  Whereas the addrinfo structure doesn't contain the port you're looking for.  Your example uses `$this->address["ai_addr"]`, however, ai_addr isn't a port number like you're using it.  It's the sockaddr structure.  So I envision the typical array-return to look weird like this:

<?php
$infos = socket_getaddrinfo('127.0.0.1', 'ssh', array(
    'ai_family' => AF_INET,
    'ai_socktype' => SOCK_STREAM
));
$info = reset($infos);
$sock = socket_create(
    $address["ai_family"],
    $address["ai_socktype"],
    $address["ai_protocol"]
);
socket_bind($sock, 22);


Whereas a resource based implementation could be:<?php
$infos = socket_getaddrinfo('127.0.0.1', 'ssh', array(
    'ai_family' => AF_INET,
    'ai_socktype' => SOCK_STREAM
));
$info = reset($infos);
$sock = socket_addrinfo_bind($info);


But I digress.

[1] - Draft RFC: https://wiki.php.net/rfc/socket_getaddrinfo

I think it would be useful if the socket api remains as much as possible similar to how it is known in other languages. So the second where socket_bind and socket_listen are used to receive a addrinfo resource would be my preference.

Is there any reason to add a socket_addrinfo_close function. Can this not be garbage collected?

If at all possible I still like the array approach. As this allows the PHP programmer access to the information within the addrinfo struct. Could socket_create, socket_bind and socket_listen not be modified to also allow an array? I have no problem with having to also specify the socket resource separately. Hiding this in a addrinfo resource seems wrong somehow.

If a resource is used instead of an array. Information functions to retrieve the information within would be very much appreciated.

I see what you're looking for.  I've gone ahead and did a 3rd attempt at this guy with the use of:

    $addrinfo = socket_getaddrinfo('127.0.0.1', 2000, array(
        'ai_family' => AF_INET,
        'ai_socktype' => SOCK_STREAM,
    ));

    echo "Server: Starting\n";

    $info = reset($addrinfo);
    $sock = socket_create($info['ai_family'], $info['ai_socktype'], $info['ai_protocol']);
    if ($sock) {
        socket_bind($sock, $info['ai_addr']) or die("Could not bind");
        socket_listen($sock) or die("Could not listen");

$info['ai_addr'] here is a resource of the underlying sockaddr structure.  I foresee this implementation a bit more contentious to advocate.  Due to the fact that socket_connect, and socket_bind change signatures from

  socket_(connect/bind) (resource $sock, string $address[, int port])
to being
  socket_(connect/bind) (resource $sock, mixed $arg[, int port])
  where $arg can be string address where 3rd argument is used
  or
  where $args is resource of sockaddr and 3rd arg is ignored


I'll make sure to document all this for the RFC and see what everyone has to say about it.

I love this final version. Having $info['ai_addr'] be a resource is excellent. However I suspect someone if not me will request to add a function that can take this resource and return the IP address and port. Properly something to consider. Otherwise I am really happy with this version.

Btw, missing from the implementation is a way to set that the socket port should be reusable. Any change that can be added somehow. Perhaps a second parameter to socket_addrinfo_bind containing an array of socket options? As far as I know the SO_REUSEADDR has to be set before bind is called.