ADVANCED: executing external programs in background in win

ozzythaman

Hi all,
has anyone figured how to start an external program in windows with system() or exec() from inside a php script while keeping the php running at the same time, WITHOUT waiting for the program to finish,

like the "bg" command or "&" in unix.

and if you haven't, has anyone figured out why it doesn't / shouldn't work?

and please dont write that it SHOULD work, because it DOESNT, ive been experimenting with this problem since the day i got php years ago.

this includes all variations of running system and exec with the "start" command,

thanks,
O D

AstroTeg

exec() and system() may not be what you want. Check out [man]popen[/man] and [man]pclose[/man].

	$cmd = 'start /D c:\\php\\ /B php [path to PHP script]';
	pclose(popen($cmd, "r"));

This is just a working example. It will launch PHP with the command option of the PHP script you wish to run and it will do all of this in the background without opening a new window. You'll want to test any shell arguments you send over for safety. I use the above code on Win2k w/Apache v1.3.x and PHP v4.3.x.

You don't have to run the PHP command like I did above. You can have start launch whatever program(s) you like. Look into the start command for more details (you'll need to look at a Microsoft site mostlikely).

ozzythaman

my oh my, it works!

This is the thing I've been looking so long for..
I may just have met my match in php!

I salute you AstroTeg!

thanks!

O Darcan

AstroTeg

I needed to be able to do this not too long ago too. Glad you're able to make use of it.

dave420

I use sysinternal's "psexec" app (http://www.sysinternals.com) for admin stuff at work (and at home, come to think of it). It lets you execute command-lines on machines on your network (localhost included). The benefits over start are numerous, including logging-on as a different user, proper forking, interactive/non-interactive settings etc. It's one of the most useful command-line tools out there, and I always have a copy of pstools lying around on the network, 'cos it's so useful.