Script Execution and control !!

dannymm

Hi friends,

Is there any way to check in PHP if a script is still running or it has stopped execution.

I have a system which handles files in such a way that it moves files into different directories depending on some rules. Each file takes atleast 4 to 5 seconds to get processed(XML files).

The problem what i am facing is .. i want only one user to acess the system at once. i,e if the script is already running (takes 2 to 30 minutes depending on total files) .. i do not want some one else to execute the script. When script is exucuted again(when the first instance is still running) .. i should be able to detect it and throw a message at user saying "the script is being executed .. please try after some time".(because a second(or more) instance creates a mess)

I thought i'll build a login/logout interface .... but that did not work out for the above problem ....

Any suggestions / solutions ..

Thanks in Advance ..

Danny Appaiah

Anon

Hi,

for the first user i would create a file or a database-entry and let him execute the special script.

If another user wants to do so, php checks, if such a file or db-entry is still there and if so, will tell it the user.

When the first user finishes the script, it automatically deletes the file or db-entry.

This should work.

dannymm

Thanks for the suggestion .... but there could be a problem. What if, the user hits the stop button while the script is still running... in such a case the script won't be able to delete the file or db entry (it will be "on" forever).

Danny !!

Anon

then you can use some timestamp, as you know that your script takes 5 to 6 seconds.. then you can delete it if the time is above 10 seconds..

make a field named timestamp and insert time in the database at the staring on the script and also check that if there is a time entry which is old than 10 seconds...

I hope this would help..

dannymm

Is there no fool proof method to solve this ?? the solutions which you guys have suggested may not work for all the cases.

e.g: first of all i won't be sure about the script execution time. When i said the script takes 5 to 6 seconds, that was according to my current set up. If the XML file size/number varies the execution time also varies correspondingly.

Is there any method through which i can access the process status or something !!! i am not sure about this ...

Danny !!