Don't wait for file_get_contents() to finish - php

Question

Is there a way to call multiple file_get_contents without waiting first one to finish. I have a few PHP scripts that do some heavy work and execution time of one is more than 1.5 min so I want to call them all at the same time to reduce execution time. Currently I have multiple file_get_contents but to run next file_get_contents the first one needs to finish first. I tried exec method but it's blocked on server (shared hosting).

Answer 1

Well there are ways of running tasks in parallel if thats what you're trying to achieve but bare in mind PHP is a high level scripting language and the original purpose of it was to serve stateless HTTP request.
There are extensions out there like Gearman, this extension allows applications to complete tasks in parallel.
Obviously this will be in vane for you as you're probably using a service for just hosting. Get something like a vps, a vps from OVH is cheaper than most web hosting services.

Answer 2

Yes, it is possible! But it is little bit tricky!
You have to play with forks.
I agree about queues and else... but just for the sake of ability, here is an example:
<?php
declare(ticks = 1);
$a = [
'https://twitter.com',
'https://facebook.com',
'https://stackoverflow.com',
'https://linkedin.com',
'https://github.com',
];
// Count of php threads (forks or processes).
$max = 3;
// Child counter.
$child = 0;
pcntl_signal(SIGCHLD, function ($signo) {
global $child;
if ($signo === SIGCLD) {
while (($pid = pcntl_wait($signo, WNOHANG)) > 0) {
$signal = pcntl_wexitstatus($signo);
$child--;
}
}
});
foreach ($a as $item) {
while ($child >= $max) {
sleep(1);
}
$child++;
$pid = pcntl_fork();
if ($pid) {
} else {
// Child fork.
sleep(1);
// HERE YOUR CODE:
echo file_get_contents($item);
exit(0);
}
}
while ($child != 0) {
sleep(1);
}