[RESOLVED] PHP.exe hanging in process list

DeathfireD

Hello, Id first like to say that my script used to work fine in php4 without many process hangs (maby 1 per month). But after updating to php5 iv noticed after a few hours I end up with 5 or 6 php.exe's stuck in my process list using up memory.

Ok so heres what the script does so you get a general idea of what might be the problem. The script looks into a database for ips and then makes a connection to them to see if there online via connection and port. Well my database grows larger and larger every day I have about 49 ips listed in the database. Now basicly I run a cron that runs the php script directly to php.exe every 6 mins. So assuming somthing goes wrong like it has been, php does not time out and it just stays there in the process list untill I go into DOS and run the kill -f command. This happends mainly after 5 hours or so. If I leave it there for a few days without running the kill command I have like 6 or 7+ php.exes in the process.

My server is running windows 2000, php5 and a nnCron program.

So my question is has anyone had issues like this before and how did you solve them? Much thanks to anyone that can solve this major issue for me.

DeathfireD

Bump, Dosnt anyone know any way to set the php.exe's time out shorter? Or auto kill the processes? It really sucks comming home to 10 php.exes hanging in memory and then have to do the kill command for each id 🙁

bradgrafelman

Depending on how your script is structured, you could tell the script to kill itself after xx minutes of running.

$start_time = time();

while( strtotime('+10 minutes',$start_time) < time() ) {

  // grab one of the IP's from the database and check it.

}

DeathfireD

See thats the thing, I set a time out for each server check. So say I have 49 ips in my database and I set the time out or throttle to 1.5 seconds it will spend up to 1.5 seconds on checking that each ip. If it takes longer then that jump to the next ip. Now normally this would work out great but for some reason I'm not sure why it sometimes randomly stops running and hangs in memory. Then after 6 mins pass the cron goes on again causing another php.exe to run and it either successfully makes it through the server check code or it does like the last one and locks up and hangs in the memory.

So I guess I could try what your saying but somehow I don't know it that will successfully work.

OH also I didn't say this before but I have a 2nd cron doing somewhat of the same thing but its not looking in a database its only checking 4 IPs that are written in the php file. Would php.exe lock up becuse both crons ran at the same time doing the same fsock technique? Because if thats what it is then I can just merge the code.

PS. Sorry for the large posts.

bradgrafelman

Okay, let's see what's hanging PHP.

After it checks an IP and it looks on to the next one, echo something. Like...

while($result = mysql_fetch_assoc($sql)) {
echo 'Checking: ' . $result['ip'] . "... ";
// do IP stuff
echo "DONE.\n";
}

Then, open up a telnet/ssh/console session and manually run the script from the CLI (don't fork the process into the background - we want it to output to the console). Can you see what it's hanging up on? Does it say it's checking the IP and then never says done? Maybe your 1.5 second throttle is not working correctly.

DeathfireD

Well I tryed somthing like that but the php hanging issue never happends when im around. Its alwase when im at college or away from home. So I decided to set the time out to 360 since the cron is run every 6 mins. This is just a test to see if the php does hang if it will time its self out around the time of the next cron run. If this dosnt work then I guess Ill have to try your method of finding the issue this weekend.

Much thanks so far.

DeathfireD

ok I got it to stop hanging. The timeout set to 360 worked for the most part. I also contacted my web server software maker since the software is not apache and becuse for some odd reason when php timed out more then 10 times it would cause my web server to max out on its max threads setting. So I asked him a few questions relating with the issue. He said try switching over to php-cgi.exe since the web server is set to auto time out all php-cgi.exe processes. So with a combo of that and my time out update in the script the cron seems to be working. There are some odd times during peak hours where the cron skips a beat and hangs in memory but not as often as before.

Much thanks for all your help.