execute bash script from php without waiting

Question

I execute a bash script from php with shell_exec. But the php script waits until the shell script is finished.

Can I somehow call the bash script without waiting. Both:

exec
shell_exec

are waiting until the bash script is finished. I'm running linux btw.

Answer 1

This has to work:

exec('/your/command /dev/null 2>/dev/null &');

Answer 2

when calling your bash script append & so it will run in the background that's the easiest way if you don't need any output

shell_exec("/bin/bash /path/to/script.sh &");