php execute a background process

Question

I need to execute a directory copy upon a user action, but the directories are quite large, so I would like to be able to perform such an action without the user being aware

Answer 1

Write the process as a server-side script in whatever language (php/bash/perl/etc) is handy and then call it from the process control functions in your php script.

The function probably detects if standard io is used as the output stream and if it is then that will set the return value..if not then it ends

proc_close( proc_open( "./command --foo=1 &", array(), $foo ) );

I tested this quickly from the command line using "sleep 25s" as the command and it worked like a charm.

(Answer found here)