Re: How can I make a PHP script run as a background process ????

Thanks Richard for the info. Will try to see if I can make something work. I do think that a background job thread is missing from PHP (as standard functions etc.) Benny ""Richard Lynch"" <richard@zend.com> skrev i en meddelelse news:06a501c084ca$19dc44a0$64aa8ed8@142.170.100... > > I need to have some task performed all the time in the background > (database > > task etc.) > > How is this possible with PHP. I do not have direct access to the OS (can > > not make an application to run directly under linux). Is it possible to > have > > a PHP script execute all the time in some way. > > Hmmmm. > > Do you have telnet or SSH access, and can you install a "cron" job?... > > Log in and do like this: > > crontab -l > > (That's an L for List, not 1) > > This will list your (probably non-existant) cron jobs so far. > > If that works, odds are that reading: > > man 5 crontab > > will have you pretty much hooked up on the "doing something regularly" > part... Or at least, you'll see how it could maybe work once you figure out > all those *'s and stuff. :-) > > Then you have to ask yourself, "Self, is PHP installed as a CGI binary > anywhere on this thing?" Cuz if it is, it's way more better from a purist > perspective... So, try this: > > find / -name php -print 2> /dev/null | less > > You may wanna take a coffee break right about here... It's searching your > entire ISPs hard drive for the PHP binary... > > Now, if that turns up a file that looks like it might be the php binary... > Do this: > > ls -alsh XXX > where XXX is the thing you found and make sure it's a nice big file (a meg > or two) and not just some directory or something. > > If it is, you can write a PHP script like this: > > #!/full/path/to/php -q > <?php > #your code here > ?> > > And then you can do: > chmod 775 myscript.php > > Once you do *that* you can just slide /full/path/to/myscript.php right there > into your cron list using: > > crontab -e > > You'll be in an editor, and you can put in something like this: > 0 1 * * * /full/path/to/myscript.php > and save it. > This one fires off at 1 am, every day. > > Now, if you never did find the PHP binary, all is not lost. There might be > "wget" on your server, and you can use crontab to make that *surf* to your > PHP page every day, still using crontab. > > Now, even if you can't find that wget thingie, you almost for sure have > "lynx" on your server, and you can use *that* to surf to your page every > day. > > PHP as a CGI (the first choice) is more efficient, wget after that, and lynx > last of all. > > Still, they'll all get the job done. > > Don't worry if it takes awhile to get the hang of this cron stuff -- Took me > months to figure it out the first time around (well, I had some editor > problems mixed in there too). Once you do one of them, though, you find all > sorts of nifty things that it's handy for. You don't want to get carried > away, of course, cuz cron is no magic bullet. Each of those jobs you run > takes up some work, and they can add up if you get silly about it. > > Still, all sorts of low-level maintenance and menial tasks can be automated > this way, and setting it up is not much harder than doing the task once. > But once it's going, you can cross it off your ToDo list practically > forever. > > I know that was kinda ramblin', but that's the way I was feelin' Hope it's > okay. > > Don't miss the Zend Web Store's Grand Opening on January 23, 2001! > http://www.zend.com > Wanna help me out? Like Music? Buy a CD: > http://l-i-e.com/artists.htm > Volunteer a little time: http://chatmusic.com/volunteer.htm > > > > -- > PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) > To unsubscribe, e-mail: php-general-unsubscribe@lists.php.net > For additional commands, e-mail: php-general-help@lists.php.net > To contact the list administrators, e-mail: php-list-admin@lists.php.net >