How to invoke command in BACKGROUND?

wael_o

I have a php program that calls an expect script. The problem I am having is that
my script takes an hour or so to complete. I do not know how to call it to run in
the background like we do when we execute a unix command an use I tried
commands such as system, exec and passthru, but all did not help.

If there is a way, Could you please help me.

Here is what i am doing now

foreach($build_commands as $cmd){
system("./$cmd"); //cmd: "diag.exp parm1 parm2 parm3 &"
}

~Wael.

bradgrafelman

I see you're using the '&'... is it not forking the command into the background?

Perhaps you should try using nohup? I have no clue if your OS already has it or if its available for download somewhere, but you'd simply do this:

system("nohup ./$cmd");

assuming the '&' is at the end of $cmd.

wael_o

"&" did not help running in on background
I tried "system ("nohup ./$cmd)", and i see it has the same effect as passthru command now. My script is runninf and it dumps everything to the browser. Not what I wanted.
What I have is that.
a tcl script that telnet to a node and run diagnostics and keep writing results to a log file.
I did the following
1. created a form t ask the user for the node informations and saved data in array.

I want to invoke the same script for each row in the array and get control back so I can display links to all logs files, so the end user can monitor different runs.

bradgrafelman

Sorry.. you're beyond my knowledge.