exec() making script wait

[Anon]

Hello I have a script running through the mod_php which calls a standalone php script. The problem is the main script is waiting for the shell script to end even though I used a &. Look at the two programs.

main.php (runs from the website):

<?php
exec("./mailout.php &");
?>

mailout.php (runs as a shell script):

!/usr/bin/php -q

<?php
//kill 15 seconds of life
$test=time()+15;
while (time()<$test) {
}

?>

Any ideas (I've even tried using the & in conjuction with a "> /dev/null")

Help would be GREATLY appreciated!

-Carl

[Anon]

ya, i had this problem too - there's a php timeout function, but it doesn't work well, and not at all with exec() calls (from what i've read). PHP's not too good with setting the maximum script length.

what i did was, wrote a perl script, with an exec{

code

};

block, and used one of the perl packages that throws an exception after a certain period of time - then after the eval loop, check the value of @_, and see if the error was thrown. 'dont have the script in front of me, but i pretty much copied the syntax outta the "perl cookbook". i then printed the results, which php would interpret - perl would return whether or not it timed out, etc...

anyway, i know this is vague, but hopefully it'll help - have php call a perl script which calls the other php script with a timeout - i know it's a runaround

good luck,

blake