Launch php script at apache2 startup - php

Question

I am trying to run a php script to restore a state after the server crashed, got restarted or smth.
Because the php script needs the database to run I first tried running it by creating a file in init.d, which did not work, it just started whenever it wantend.
So right now I think it is the easiest way to run the script on apache2 startup like discribed here.
So currently I have added php -q /var/www/scripts/testing.php & ;; to do_start() in /etc/init.d/apache2 like this:
do_start()
{
# Return
# 0 if daemon has been started
# 1 if daemon was already running
# 2 if daemon could not be started
if pidofproc -p $PIDFILE "$DAEMON" > /dev/null 2>&1 ; then
return 1
fi
if apache_conftest ; then
$APACHE2CTL start
php -q /var/www/scripts/testing.php &
;;
apache_wait_start $?
return $?
else
APACHE2_INIT_MESSAGE="The apache2$DIR_SUFFIX configtest failed."
return 2
fi
}
But because this didn't work at all, I have also added this php execution to the restart) part as mentioned in the link. This looks like this:
restart)
log_daemon_msg "Restarting $DESC" "$NAME"
do_stop stop
case "$?" in
0|1)
do_start
case "$?" in
0)
log_end_msg 0
;;
1|*)
log_end_msg 1 # Old process is still or failed to running
print_error_msg
exit 1
;;
esac
;;
*)
# Failed to stop
log_end_msg 1
print_error_msg
exit 1
;;
php -q /var/www/scripts/testing.php &
;;
esac
;;
But still the script is not run. The php script looks like this:
<?php
file_put_contents('/var/www/html/log', "301,$timestamp,Recreating all connections after restart,N/A\n",FILE_APPEND);
?>
Because i wanted it to be as simple as possible, but the log file is still empty. I am open to any idea solving my problem.
p.s.: I have already tried to do this by a service in /etc/systemd/system/ but since I am starting a connection that is supposed to be persistent, I have to use either screen, nohup or disown. I have tried those three, but no of this worked, they just didn't start the script. (was bash back then, I switched to php to be able to run it from the apache2 file)

Answer 1

You should not use apache to start your script, but follow your first idea of using an own init-script unless your php script depends on the existence of apache.
Just place a shell script callmyphp into /etc/init.d that calls the php interpreter and passes your php script as an argument like:
#!/bin/sh
/usr/bin/php -q /path/to/myphp.php
Don't forget to make your calling script executabel with chmod 755 /etc/init.d/callmyphp.
Then add your calling script via symbolic links to the desired run levels, i.e. by running update-rc.d callmyphp defaults
See also https://debian-administration.org/article/28/Making_scripts_run_at_boot_time_with_Debian