"getlines" reads until it finds $/. The messages on your socket may not all end in $/. So there could be more data available for reading from your socket (hence select says you can read from it) but that data may not contain $/ (so "getlines" hangs waiting for $/ to show up).

You probably want to use read or sysread instead of "getlines".

        - tye (but my friends call me "Tye")