Executing an exec() or system() in PHP and do not wait for output

Question

I want to trigger a shell command in eider exec() or system() from PHP script but it is a task that take a while to complete, is there a way to trigger it and continue running the PHP page load without delay?

Edit: I am on CentOS 6, PHP 5.3

Answer 1

Depends on the OS you are using.

For linux:

pclose(popen("php somefile.php &","r"));

notice the amperstand at the end (very important).

For windows:

pclose(popen("start php.exe somefile.php","r"));

here the start keyword is important.

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

This doesn't answer your question directly, but you should consider doing your video conversion work in a background process with either a cron job or using a queue such as Beanstalkd.

This way you can stack up your ffmpeg work in the background without blocking your webserver.

I've had a lot of success with both methods (cron / queue) in the past.

Some other posts about background processes:

php execute a background process

Run a ffmpeg process in the background

Using ffmpeg, PHP and beanstalk

Some tools you might find useful:

http://kevin.vanzonneveld.net/techblog/article/create_daemons_in_php/

PEAR System_Daemon

Pheanstalk, a Beanstalkd library for PHP