Using EXEC without waiting for response

sledgeweb

Hello,

I've got a page on an application form that runs an executable. I don't return anything from the executable, and I don't want to the script to wait for it before continuing. I just want it to call the executable and forget about it. The executable is self contained, in doesn't return anything back to the script.

I'm currently executing with EXEC like so:

exec("c:\\filename.exe " . $_SESSION['memberId']);

So, I call the executable and pass an argument of the member Id. It works fine, but, I'm wondering if I need to do something to tell it not to wait for the executable to finish. Do I need to add a flag to tell it to run in the background, something like:

exec(" /b c:\\filename.exe" . $_SESSION['memberId']);

Thanks,
Sledge

thorpe

does this run when a submit button is pushed or something? maybe you could use ajax to run it in the background.

otherwise, you might have a look at threading. never used it myself, so cant really help, but it'll give you something to search for.

sledgeweb

What happens is, the user fills out info on page1. The form submit calls page2, on page2, a transaction is sent to authorize.net, and if everything went OK, then I call the executable. The exe basically processes their application in out internal system and takes 2-3 seconds to execute. I just don't want the user to wait those 2-3 seconds if they don't have to, since they've already been waiting a few seconds for the transaction to hit authorize.net and return.

it_is_spatial

I'm having a similar issue. I've got exec() running a process on files that are uploaded to my server. I don't need to show any type of response or wait for the executable to finish. All i want is to say 'Hey, your file made it. Wait for the e-mail'. Like I said the exec() is running and everything is fine except that the server times out because its waiting for the exec() to finish (which it doesn't need to wait). Is there any way to not wait for it to finish, and just send a response back?

kakki

"passthru" ????

Weedpacket

Have a look in the user notes on the [man]exec[/man] manual page. There some stuff there about forking a background task on Windows. Maybe that will work.