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

I'd just like to add a very simple example for testing this functionality on Windows:

Create the following two files and save them to a web directory:

foreground.php:

loading page

"; function run_background_process() { file_put_contents("testprocesses.php","foreground start time = " . time() . "\n"); echo "

  foreground start time = " . time() . "

"; // output from the command must be redirected to a file or another output stream // http://ca.php.net/manual/en/function.exec.php exec("php background.php > testoutput.php 2>&1 & echo $!", $output); echo "

  foreground end time = " . time() . "

"; file_put_contents("testprocesses.php","foreground end time = " . time() . "\n", FILE_APPEND); return $output; } echo "

calling run_background_process

"; $output = run_background_process(); echo "

output = "; print_r($output); echo "

"; echo "

end of page

"; ?>

background.php:

Give IUSR permission to write to the directory in which you created the above files

Give IUSR permission to READ and EXECUTE C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe

Hit foreground.php from a web browser

The following should be rendered to the browser w/the current timestamps and local resource # in the output array:

loading page
calling run_background_process
  foreground start time = 1266003600
  foreground end time = 1266003600
output = Array
(
    [0] => 15010
)
end of page

You should see testoutput.php in the same directory as the above files were saved, and it should be empty

You should see testprocesses.php in the same directory as the above files were saved, and it should contain the following text w/the current timestamps:

foreground start time = 1266003600
foreground end time = 1266003600
background start time = 1266003600
background end time = 1266003610