running php script in the background

[Anon]

Hi all,

I'm currently writing a bulk emailer/mailing list manager in PHP and need some help. Basically, I'm trying to write it so that once i've clicked send, the email formating and sending script will loop in the background, and not loop in my browser, so I can get on and do other things.

I've been kindly pointed in the direction of the exec() function, which I think is the ticket, but I can't seem to get it to work.
Here's the scripts I'm currently trying to get it to work with:

testit.php

<?
	exec("php -q test.php > test.html");
?>

test.php

#!/usr/bin/php -q
<?php
	echo "booo!!";
?>

this should in theory write the text 'booo!!' to the test.html file, but it doesn't.

can anyone tell me where I'm going wrong?
Thanks,
Tekin

[khaine]

The exec function may not be the boon that you think it is. It will execute compiled, of executable program files i.e. batch files. I have never heard it being used successfully to run php script outside of the webserver. The only way I can see this working is to compile PHP as a cgi module and not as part of your apache install. You should then be able to run the script you seek.

Mark.