How to execute a command in the background without PHP waiting for it to finish, on both Windows and Unix/Linux.
On Unix/Linux, we know that to run a command in the background we must use add > /dev/null & or > /dev/null 2>&1 & follow the command (We can see in this tutorial: http://tutorialspots.com/linux-how-to-download-multiple-files-in-background-4217.html
<?php
function runInBackground($cmd) {
if (substr(php_uname(), 0, 7) == "Windows"){
pclose(popen("start /B ". $cmd, "r"));
}
else {
exec($cmd . " > /dev/null &");
//or exec($cmd . " > /dev/null 2>&1 &");
}
}
?>
On Windows, you can run a command in the background by method:
$WshShell = new COM("WScript.Shell");
$oExec = $WshShell->Run("notepad.exe", 0, false);
if($oExec==0){
echo 'done!';
}else{
echo 'fail!';
}
Other method on Windows:
<?php
function runInBackground($path,$arguments) {
$WshShell = new COM("WScript.Shell");
$oShellLink = $WshShell->CreateShortcut("temp.lnk");
$oShellLink->TargetPath = $path;
$oShellLink->Arguments = $arguments;
$oShellLink->WorkingDirectory = dirname($path);
$oShellLink->WindowStyle = 1;
$oShellLink->Save();
$oExec = $WshShell->Run("temp.lnk", 0, false);
unset($WshShell,$oShellLink,$oExec);
@unlink("temp.lnk");
return $oExec==0?true:false;
}
runInBackground("notepad.exe","");
Other method on Windows:
pclose(popen('powershell.exe "Start-Process notepad.exe -WindowStyle Hidden"','r'));
Readmore about Start-Process: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/Microsoft.PowerShell.Management/Start-Process?view=powershell-6
How to track this process with PHP, how to check this process is finished, read next tutorial.
