Can a PHP script start another PHP script and exit?

Question

How can a PHP script start another PHP script, and then exit, leaving the other script running?

Also, is there any way for the 2nd script to inform the PHP script when i

Answer 1

You can effectively achieve this by forking and then calling include or require.

parent.php:

sleeper.php:

Output:

$ php parent.php
Sleeper started at 01:22:02
Parent waiting at 01:22:02
Sleeper done at 01:22:05
Parent done at 01:22:05

However, forking does not inherently allow any inter-process communication, so you'd have to find some other way to inform the parent that the child has reached the specific line, like you asked in the question.