simple for you - should I use PASSTHRU?

misterguru

Let's get this over with: I'm a newbie! Hi!

I want to have PHP (windows xp & Apache) tell the system to copy some files to a specific location:

passthru("copy g:\dcim\10EOS1D*.jpg x:\htdocs\".$eventname)

Now the kicker is I don't want it to WAIT for the output... this may take 10-15 minutes using 1 gig microdrives!

I would like to spawn that copy process and redirect output from it to a log file.

What I am doing:
A month ago I dove into PHP/Apache to re-create a point-of-sale kiosk photo system I saw at an event. (I have programmed in other lang's.) It is done and works great, but now I need some bells and whistles:

I am writing a "control panel" for the operator to easily perform some operations. It has a form to input a description of the photos about to be uploaded, queries the disk drives to find out which one has a CF memory card and then needs to copy it to a directory.

Thanks in advance

misterguru

Hello... knock knock :-)

How can I have PHP pass along the copy command and not wait for completion?

I am doing something like:

passthru("copy g:*.jpg c:\apache\htdocs\ > logfile.txt");

and it works, but it waits until it is done. Copying a microdrive (1G😎 can take 7-10 minutes depending on system load. PHP times out.

If I hit the STOP button on the browser it is all ok and the command still works... but there must be a better solution.

BeastRider

Hey... I don't know what's going on, but have you looked at popen() which creates a forked process?

http://www.us2.php.net/manual/en/function.popen.php

misterguru

It looks like if I ran Linux or other unix flavor I could add a & at the end. That does not work in Windows.

It looks like I may do a workaround writing a function to create a .bat file with the command in it and call it via Windows' start or wstart command using -b -s or -N

I will report if it works and add to the online PHP manual if successful.

misterguru

If anyone has an idea on this:

I have now put the commands I need to execute in a .bat file.

If there is another way to activate them other than exec, system, passthru, backticks... everything I have tried has left the browser waiting until my commands in .bat fole are complete.

From the command prompt (XP) "start /separate mycommands.bat" spawns a new window and returns the command prompt immediately. But the browser waits when same is exeuted from PHP.

Is this an Apache thing? A PHP thing? Should I do it in another lang (perl) or give a command to Apache?

I have removed sessions from this script.. that's not hanging it...

help :-)