Running something at web server startup

smithsa

I'm not sure this is possible, so I thought I'd ask the experts.

I've got a bunch of PHP code that sits behind Apache and responds to requests. It works great.

I now want to run some PHP code that doesn't respond to requests, but rather runs independantly. For instance, when Apache starts, it would be great to have it kick off some function I've registered. This function wouldn't be in reaction to a requst, but rather some general housekeeping taks. I know that I could do these things after receiving my first request, but that really won't work for the housekeeping tasks I need to do.

Any ideas on how something like this could be done?

bpat1434

You could set up a Cron Job to run those tasks at specific times .

rowanparker

Or just add it as a service thingy (/etc/init.d) and get it to start on boot up or whatever

bpat1434

service is windows. Daemon is *nix 😉

rowanparker

That's the word 🙂
I've done it, just could not remember the name!

smithsa

Thanks for all of your help, but that's not what I'm trying to do.

I'm writing a part of an application that I'd like to distribute to others. One of the most important aspects is that it be very easy to install and to run. Hence, providing some additional daemon/Windows service/etc. just won't cut it.

I guess I was inspired by the fact that this isn't very difficult to do with an Apache module. I was hoping that maybe there could be some way to do something similar, or have some way to hook into the PHP module to get the same kind of thing done.

Any ideas?

redrage

on *nix could you just ad a line in: /etc/rc.d/init.d/httpd under the start section?

I never tried anything like that but would assume so since it is just a bash script.

so something like this?


start() {
     echo -n $"Starting $prog:"
     check13 || exit 1
     deamon $httpd $OPTIONS
     RETVAL=$?
     echo
     [ $RETVAL =0 ] && touch /var/lock/subsys/httpd

 /usr/local/start/your/program/here/or/something

 return $RETVAL
}

seems like it would work to me but I'm not sure. I think it just needs to be before the return $RETVAL (since that is where the script ends when the start argument is called. assuming it works you could do the same thing under the stop() function as well to kill your program.

Joe

tyrionlannister

Why do you need to do it when the server starts up? That could be once every 3 days or once every month, depending on your system stability.

It's not really a reliable way to do housekeeping. Your best bet is to set a cron job to run every day or however often you think you'll need it, and to have it do it's own checking to see whether whatever task it needs to perform is necessary based on whatever criteria you set.

It really doesn't use much in the way of resources, and is a lot more reliable than what you seem to be asking for.