PHP Refreshing Itself? Or it's includes?

Wynder

Is there anyway to have a PHP Script reload itself during execution and still retain all of it's variables and connections?

bad76

Hi,
if you reload the script, the only way to retain all of it's variables and connections is to put it in the url as cgi vars or to save it in a file...

Wynder

The code I'm running isn't actually as a web-page... rather I'm using sockets to run the script as a daemonized telnet server. So, I'm trying to find a way to reload changes without having to actually disconnect the users.

I'd also want to avoid having the server freeze to maintain data integrity, so if the process could be forked out, that would be even better.

Jeb_

First: sessions maybe? Store data in a file and grab it at script load?

Second question: See the Process Control Functions.

Wynder

First: sessions maybe? Store data in a file and grab it at script load?

I believe sessions are strictly for web use.. not for the type of socket programming used here.

As for process control functions, if you mean fork, I'm aware of how to use it, just not in the method I need it to be used. 🙂

Jeb_

Originally posted by Wynder
I believe sessions are strictly for web use.. not for the type of socket programming used here.

I know. I was dribbling ideas onto the form 😃

As for process control functions, if you mean fork, I'm aware of how to use it, just not in the method I need it to be used. 🙂

Thought as much. I doubt you'd be talking about fork() if you didn't know what it did and how to use it 😉. Any specific method you're thinking of?

The only way I can see to reload changes without disconnecting users is to save any required data in a file, and load it at preset times (or random times if you prefer). If you reload a PHP script, it has to shutdown. The shutdown kills the connections (obviously). So it's a bit of a tradeoff.

Wynder

sigh

I figured as much... hopefully the PHP developers will look more into creating functions for PHP as a shell scripting/programming language in addition to it's web-based functionality.

Thanks for the input.

HalfaBee

If you want to reload variables from a file why not use filemtime() to see if the file has changed.

HalfaBee

Wynder

At this point it's not a matter of knowing if the file has changed -- I know the file has changed, I just need to reload it without loosing any of the socket connections.

HalfaBee

If the script is still running you won't lose the connections.

I suppose it all depends on what you are reloading.
HalfaBee

Wynder

For instance...

I have the script running and, while it's running, I add a function to it. I want to reload that script to include the new function without loosing the socket connections...

Since I believe the script is loaded into memory (I assume there) or, at the very least, stuck inside of the loop that listens for data and new sockets, I wasn't sure if it was possible to enable this new function without loosing the existing connections.

bad76

Hi,
you can get any help from pfsockopen() function for persistent connection, else if this not so usefull: it's persistent only in the same process.

Another ideas may be this:
Do you cannot separate socket script from function script?

You can make a first script. This first, do socket connection and listen for command. Then when receive a command execute as system call a second php script, with command as parameter. This second can be updated without any reconnection.

I hope all this make a sense...