i try to run php processes in background and start this from an php file.
Some informations: PHP Version 5.2.17, php safe_mode is off, linux system. I start the process with exec, tried already shell_exec. I set all files to 0755, 0777.
$pid = exec("nohup $cmd > /dev/null 2> /dev/null & echo $!");
If i print this statement, i get this and the pid is okay:
nohup /usr/local/bin/php5 /.../../file.php > /dev/null 2> /dev/null & echo $!
If i look for processes under ssh with
top
i see my php5 process with the correct pid. user is root
PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
3533 xxxxxxxx 20 0 21356 8868 4580 S 0 0.4 0:00.13 php5
3536 xxxxxxxx 20 0 20836 8260 4428 S 0 0.4 0:00.09 php5
3539 xxxxxxxx 20 0 20836 8260 4428 S 0 0.4 0:00.09 php5
3542 xxxxxxxx 20 0 20836 8260 4428 S 0 0.4 0:00.09 php5
3545 xxxxxxxx 20 0 20836 8260 4428 S 0 0.4 0:00.09 php5
3548 xxxxxxxx 20 0 20836 8260 4428 S 0 0.4 0:00.09 php5
3551 xxxxxxxx 20 0 20836 8260 4428 S 0 0.4 0:00.09 php5
if i start the process manual top looks like this:
PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
8141 xxxxxxxx 22 2 24048 9.9m 5344 S 10 0.5 0:00.31 php5
The problem: it seems like nothing happens.To debug a little bit i wrote a output in the file
ob_start();
echo "STARTING...";
writeLog(ob_get_contents());
//...
function writeLog($info){
$handle = fopen("file.log", "a+");
fwrite($handle, $info);
fclose($handle);
}
exit;
No logs in my file. If I start this file in my browser, it processes correctly and get my file.log with the "debugging" information.
Why this is working in browser and not on exec/shell_exec command??! i have exactly these php processes with correct pid, but no result.
Thanks a lot for help!
The PHP CLI environment can be different from the web environment (mod_php, FCGI, whatever). It's entirely possible for a script to die with an error when run from the commandline and not when you invoke it through a webserver. Debug your script. If you can, SSH into your server, su to the webserver user and run the script from the commandline yourself.
If you can't do that, set up your own development server where you can do this (it's not that hard if you know some Linux).