php shell - best way to do this:

[ChaosT]

Hi,

I am running a php shell script as part of a wider program.

Basically, it runs in an infinate loop to see if a piece of data exists. If it does, it processes the data, if it doesn't, it falls back into the query loop.

I have tested the process using the data within a mysql table or within a text file stored on a local dir. Here be my problem:

using the mysql_query, processor usage is up to 15% in the infinate loop (using the text file, it is 100% using a file_exists loop).

15% i guess is not too bad but i will need over 20 of these query scritps running at the same time. Is there a better way to do this, to limit the amount of processor usage each script/query uses?

Many Thanks in Advance...

ChaosT

[mtmosier]

Are you doing a sleep/usleep in your loop? Also there's a user comment on the usleep page describing how to monitor the cpu usage on a unix type system.

[hagen00]

wow,

there must be better ways to do this than running an infinite loop and 15% of your processor is bad!

Are you on linux? If so, then run a cron job how ever often you want. With the cron job, call a shell or possibly perl script (perl is easier to connect to the database to than through a shell script), or even call the php script and check if the data is there. If it is then process. If not, then the cron will run again and check.

I think though that crons can only be set to run every minute...there are workarounds, but they are usually no good. So with this solution, you can only check every minute (i think).

The infinite loop is definitely not a scalable solution though...

hope that helps

hagen