Launch a background task from a PHP script?

[Francois Bonzon]

Any idea how I can launch a background task from a PHP script?

For example, when a user posts on my message board, it may fire many
e-mail notifications to other users, and other tasks. I want the
posting confirmation page to end displaying quickly, without waiting
for those notifications or other tasks to complete.

So basically what I want is to launch 'background.php' from 'main.php',
with the user seeing only the output of - and waiting only for the end
of - 'main.php'. Without the need to wait for the end of the possibly
long 'background.php', like if I had simply included it in 'main.php'.

According to the PHP Manual, the function register_shutdown_function()
was the solution "in PHP 4.0.6 and earlier under Apache", but "since
PHP 4.1 the shutdown functions are called as the part of the request"
so that PHP waits until the shutdown functions are completed before
closing the connection to the user.

E.g. in PHP 4.1+ this

<?php
function background () {
echo 'Starting background task... ';
// Do something long that I don't want the user to see or wait for
sleep(5);
echo 'End of background task. ';
}

echo 'Starting main script... ';
register_shutdown_function('background');
echo 'End of main script. ';
?>

will output:

Starting main script... End of main script. Starting background task...
End of background task.

I want a way to output only:

Starting main script... End of main script.

and do the remaining in background.

[Michael Austin]

Francois Bonzon wrote:

Any idea how I can launch a background task from a PHP script?

For example, when a user posts on my message board, it may fire many
e-mail notifications to other users, and other tasks. I want the posting
confirmation page to end displaying quickly, without waiting for those
notifications or other tasks to complete.

So basically what I want is to launch 'background.php' from 'main.php',
with the user seeing only the output of - and waiting only for the end
of - 'main.php'. Without the need to wait for the end of the possibly
long 'background.php', like if I had simply included it in 'main.php'.

According to the PHP Manual, the function register_shutdown_function()
was the solution "in PHP 4.0.6 and earlier under Apache", but "since PHP
4.1 the shutdown functions are called as the part of the request" so
that PHP waits until the shutdown functions are completed before closing
the connection to the user.

E.g. in PHP 4.1+ this

<?php
function background () {
echo 'Starting background task... ';
// Do something long that I don't want the user to see or wait for
sleep(5);
echo 'End of background task. ';
}

echo 'Starting main script... ';
register_shutdown_function('background');
echo 'End of main script. ';
?>

will output:

Starting main script... End of main script. Starting background task...
End of background task.

I want a way to output only:

Starting main script... End of main script.

and do the remaining in background.

What platform are you on?

if this is UNIX then you can do an exec() or system() call or something like
`./executethisfile > out.log &`
note these are back-ticks (key on the top row far left ~` )

the "&" tells the shell script to execute in the background. Not sere how you
would accomplish this on the Windows platform, but then again if you are doing
anything serious, Windows is not your server platform.

--
Michael Austin.
DBA Consultant
Donations welcomed. Http://www.firstdbasource.com/donations.html
:)

[Mladen Gogala]

On Mon, 20 Feb 2006 02:00:38 +0100, wrote:

Any idea how I can launch a background task from a PHP script?

pcntl_fork will do that for you.

--
http://www.mgogala.com

[Mladen Gogala]

On Mon, 20 Feb 2006 02:44:13 +0000, Michael Austin wrote:

What platform are you on?

if this is UNIX then you can do an exec() or system() call or something like
`./executethisfile > out.log &`
note these are back-ticks (key on the top row far left ~` )

On the Unix-like operating systems, there is PCNTL extension which has
calls like fork, exec, wait and signal. This extension is not available
on Windows. On windows, there are .COM and .NOT functions in the manual.
Not being a windows person, I don't really know whether those can be
used.

--
http://www.mgogala.com

[d]

"Michael Austin" <ma*****@firstdbasource.com> wrote in message
news:12******************@newssvr25.news.prodigy.n et...

Francois Bonzon wrote:

Any idea how I can launch a background task from a PHP script?

For example, when a user posts on my message board, it may fire many
e-mail notifications to other users, and other tasks. I want the posting
confirmation page to end displaying quickly, without waiting for those
notifications or other tasks to complete.

So basically what I want is to launch 'background.php' from 'main.php',
with the user seeing only the output of - and waiting only for the end
of - 'main.php'. Without the need to wait for the end of the possibly
long 'background.php', like if I had simply included it in 'main.php'.

According to the PHP Manual, the function register_shutdown_function()
was the solution "in PHP 4.0.6 and earlier under Apache", but "since PHP
4.1 the shutdown functions are called as the part of the request" so that
PHP waits until the shutdown functions are completed before closing the
connection to the user.

E.g. in PHP 4.1+ this

<?php
function background () {
echo 'Starting background task... ';
// Do something long that I don't want the user to see or wait for
sleep(5);
echo 'End of background task. ';
}

echo 'Starting main script... ';
register_shutdown_function('background');
echo 'End of main script. ';
?>

will output:

Starting main script... End of main script. Starting background task...
End of background task.

I want a way to output only:

Starting main script... End of main script.

and do the remaining in background.
What platform are you on?

if this is UNIX then you can do an exec() or system() call or something
like
`./executethisfile > out.log &`
note these are back-ticks (key on the top row far left ~` )

the "&" tells the shell script to execute in the background. Not sere how
you would accomplish this on the Windows platform, but then again if you
are doing anything serious, Windows is not your server platform.

Grow up :) There are plenty of serious things one can do on Windows, infact
some one can only do on Windows.
--
Michael Austin.
DBA Consultant
Donations welcomed. Http://www.firstdbasource.com/donations.html
:)

[Michael Austin]

d wrote:

"Michael Austin" <ma*****@firstdbasource.com> wrote in message
news:12******************@newssvr25.news.prodigy.n et...

Francois Bonzon wrote:

Any idea how I can launch a background task from a PHP script?

For example, when a user posts on my message board, it may fire many
e-mail notifications to other users, and other tasks. I want the posting
confirmation page to end displaying quickly, without waiting for those
notifications or other tasks to complete.

So basically what I want is to launch 'background.php' from 'main.php',
with the user seeing only the output of - and waiting only for the end
of - 'main.php'. Without the need to wait for the end of the possibly
long 'background.php', like if I had simply included it in 'main.php'.

According to the PHP Manual, the function register_shutdown_function()
was the solution "in PHP 4.0.6 and earlier under Apache", but "since PHP
4.1 the shutdown functions are called as the part of the request" so that
PHP waits until the shutdown functions are completed before closing the
connection to the user.

E.g. in PHP 4.1+ this

<?php
function background () {
echo 'Starting background task... ';
// Do something long that I don't want the user to see or wait for
sleep(5);
echo 'End of background task. ';
}

echo 'Starting main script... ';
register_shutdown_function('background');
echo 'End of main script. ';
?>

will output:

Starting main script... End of main script. Starting background task...
End of background task.

I want a way to output only:

Starting main script... End of main script.

and do the remaining in background.

What platform are you on?

if this is UNIX then you can do an exec() or system() call or something
like
`./executethisfile > out.log &`
note these are back-ticks (key on the top row far left ~` )

the "&" tells the shell script to execute in the background. Not sere how
you would accomplish this on the Windows platform, but then again if you
are doing anything serious, Windows is not your server platform.

Grow up :) There are plenty of serious things one can do on Windows, infact
some one can only do on Windows.

I have not found anything "serious" I can do on windows that I can't do on other
platforms - and MY primary OS does not end in IX. :)
--
Michael Austin.
DBA Consultant
Donations welcomed. Http://www.firstdbasource.com/donations.html
:)
Long Live OpenVMS.

[Francois Bonzon]

On 2006-02-20 03:44:13 +0100, Michael Austin said:

Francois Bonzon wrote:

Any idea how I can launch a background task from a PHP script?

For example, when a user posts on my message board, it may fire many
e-mail notifications to other users, and other tasks. I want the
posting confirmation page to end displaying quickly, without waiting
for those notifications or other tasks to complete.

So basically what I want is to launch 'background.php' from 'main.php',
with the user seeing only the output of - and waiting only for the end
of - 'main.php'. Without the need to wait for the end of the possibly
long 'background.php', like if I had simply included it in 'main.php'.

According to the PHP Manual, the function register_shutdown_function()
was the solution "in PHP 4.0.6 and earlier under Apache", but "since
PHP 4.1 the shutdown functions are called as the part of the request"
so that PHP waits until the shutdown functions are completed before
closing the connection to the user.

E.g. in PHP 4.1+ this

<?php
function background () {
echo 'Starting background task... ';
// Do something long that I don't want the user to see or wait for
sleep(5);
echo 'End of background task. ';
}

echo 'Starting main script... ';
register_shutdown_function('background');
echo 'End of main script. ';
?>

will output:

Starting main script... End of main script. Starting background task...
End of background task.

I want a way to output only:

Starting main script... End of main script.

and do the remaining in background.

What platform are you on?

if this is UNIX then you can do an exec() or system() call or something like
`./executethisfile > out.log &`
note these are back-ticks (key on the top row far left ~` )

the "&" tells the shell script to execute in the background. Not sere
how you would accomplish this on the Windows platform, but then again
if you are doing anything serious, Windows is not your server platform.

I'm on a UNIX platform. I tested your solution, and it works fine. Thank you.

However, some hosts where I plan to use this disabled the exec() and
system() functions. The pcntl extension is also disabled there. So I
guess it can't be helped here.