make script execution to unlimited

Question

I need to run a script into localhost (xampp) which will generate 14400 records and adds them into database, I have set the max_execution_time = 50000000000, I dont know if I can make it unlimited by setting it to 0 or -1. But I tried this script before with this max_execution_time to 50000000000 and yet it stoped at certain point, I dont know what else could limit the execution time, I have been running this a lot of times and I am tired of waiting and failing again, what should I change before I run this script again and this time to finish the job?

Answer 1

You'll have to set it to zero. Zero means the script can run forever. Add the following at the start of your script:

ini_set('max_execution_time', 0); 

Refer to the PHP documentation of max_execution_time

Note that:

set_time_limit(0); 

will have the same effect.

Answer 2

Your script could be stopping, not because of the PHP timeout but because of the timeout in the browser you're using to access the script (ie. Firefox, Chrome, etc). Unfortunately there's seldom an easy way to extend this timeout, and in most browsers you simply can't. An option you have here is to access the script over a terminal. For example, on Windows you would make sure the PHP executable is in your path variable and then I think you execute:

C:\path\to\script> php script.php 

Or, if you're using the PHP CGI, I think it's:

C:\path\to\script> php-cgi script.php 

Plus, you would also set ini_set('max_execution_time', 0); in your script as others have mentioned. When running a PHP script this way, I'm pretty sure you can use buffer flushing to echo out the script's progress to the terminal periodically if you wish. The biggest issue I think with this method is there's really no way of stopping the script once it's started, other than stopping the entire PHP process or service.