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

A working solution for both Windows and Linux. Find more on My github page.

function run_process($cmd,$outputFile = '/dev/null', $append = false){
                    $pid=0;
                if (strtoupper(substr(PHP_OS, 0, 3)) === 'WIN') {//'This is a server using Windows!';
                        $cmd = 'wmic process call create "'.$cmd.'" | find "ProcessId"';
                        $handle = popen("start /B ". $cmd, "r");
                        $read = fread($handle, 200); //Read the output 
                        $pid=substr($read,strpos($read,'=')+1);
                        $pid=substr($pid,0,strpos($pid,';') );
                        $pid = (int)$pid;
                        pclose($handle); //Close
                }else{
                    $pid = (int)shell_exec(sprintf('%s %s %s 2>&1 & echo $!', $cmd, ($append) ? '>>' : '>', $outputFile));
                }
                    return $pid;
            }
            function is_process_running($pid){
                if (strtoupper(substr(PHP_OS, 0, 3)) === 'WIN') {//'This is a server using Windows!';
                        //tasklist /FI "PID eq 6480"
                    $result = shell_exec('tasklist /FI "PID eq '.$pid.'"' );
                    if (count(preg_split("/\n/", $result)) > 0 && !preg_match('/No tasks/', $result)) {
                        return true;
                    }
                }else{
                    $result = shell_exec(sprintf('ps %d 2>&1', $pid));
                    if (count(preg_split("/\n/", $result)) > 2 && !preg_match('/ERROR: Process ID out of range/', $result)) {
                        return true;
                    }
                }
                return false;
            }
            function stop_process($pid){
                    if (strtoupper(substr(PHP_OS, 0, 3)) === 'WIN') {//'This is a server using Windows!';
                            $result = shell_exec('taskkill /PID '.$pid );
                        if (count(preg_split("/\n/", $result)) > 0 && !preg_match('/No tasks/', $result)) {
                            return true;
                        }
                    }else{
                            $result = shell_exec(sprintf('kill %d 2>&1', $pid));
                        if (!preg_match('/No such process/', $result)) {
                            return true;
                        }
                    }
            }