What are some best practices for handling blocking sockets in PHP scripts to prevent them from affecting the script's performance?

Blocking sockets in PHP scripts can cause performance issues by making the script wait for a response from the socket, potentially slowing down the entire application. One way to prevent this is by setting a timeout for the socket connection, so that if no response is received within a specified time, the script can continue executing. Another approach is to use non-blocking sockets or asynchronous programming techniques to handle socket connections without blocking the script's execution.

// Set a timeout for the socket connection
$socket = socket_create(AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, SOL_TCP);
socket_set_option($socket, SOL_SOCKET, SO_RCVTIMEO, array("sec" => 1, "usec" => 0));

// Use non-blocking sockets
socket_set_nonblock($socket);

// Asynchronous programming with sockets
// Implement event-driven architecture or use libraries like ReactPHP or Amp