start ext. program in background

[Anon]

Hi there,

I try to start an external program and can't wait for it's end (it takes up to several minutes).

Under Linux it works fine with "&",
but how to do with w2k?

I still tried that:

1. exec("ex_program.exe filename");
2. exec("cmd /c ex_program.exe filename");
3. exec("start /b ex_program.exe filename");

And some other combinations (e.g. with "passthru").
But PHP always waits for the end of the specific program, grrrr.

"cmd /c" should work i read before, but it won't.
And it also doesn't work to put the output of the program into a textfile.

So, any ideas ?

[Anon]

Dude,

I'm in the same boat, I've tried all those and more... found your article while hunting for help. Did you try the "bgrun.exe" program that guy on php.net mentioned? I did, but it didn't work.

Oh well, good luck to both of us!

[Anon]

I have been searching for a similar functionality for different reasons. I found that I you want to start a process concurrently use the "spawn" command instead of the "exec" command and specify _P_NOWAIT. This means that it will start concurrently.

Hope this helps.