php shell execution (?) being started by a web page

[Byakuya]

hi guys
i have a php file (containing a delayed loop which lasts for hours) and i want to to run without having to keep the browser window open
is it possible to pass a value (an integer for example) from a web page and that script starts execution on the background, no matter if the browser is closed ?

[Drakla]

[man]ignore_user_abort[/man]

[man]set_time_limit[/man]

[bogu]

If u have the possibility to set a cronjob on your server, that will do what u want whenever u want...

[Byakuya]

thanks for the replies
i was thinking executing the script as a service from a web form and stuff... but it was simple realy.
a popup window with
<?php
ignore_user_abort(true);
$newsletter = new Newsletter();
if ($GET['newsletter_id'] > 0) {
echo "Started sending, you can close this window now.<br />";
sleep(1);
$newsletter->SendNewsletter($GET['newsletter_id']);
}
?>
did it 🙂
thanks again

[bradgrafelman]

Wow... I've never known about [man]ignore_user_abort/man heh. I always just fork the process into the background:

exec('/path/to/php -f myFile.php &');

[madwormer2]

Just watch out you don't include any infinite loops :p

Then you could end up with the same php file being opened 100+ times :p

I've done that a few times on my computer, I wondered why it was starting to run slow. Lol.