phpseclib ssh exec callback not working - php

Question

I use phpseclib to SSH into my remote server from a web browser and execute a php file. Below is the code I use:
$ssh->exec('cd myfolder/; php main.php ' . $file, 'packet_handler');
function packet_handler(){
echo "Completed";
header("Location: exec_completed.php");
}
The main.php file gets executed without any issue. The problem is with returning the data after execution. I have the following questions:
I do a lot of processing in the main.php file and i need to show real time progress of what the script does. When i execute the file through exec, only the first echo in the main.php is printed and the execution stops. Is there any way to get real time data from the executing script.
I follow this example from phpseclib for callbacks although my callback function packet_handler doesn't run after exec is executed. I want to redirect to another page once the main.php I execute through SSH has completed its execution. Now if i redirect to that page i get only partial results as the main.php file has not completed its execution. I tried to use sleep(10) but my main.php may take longer times to execute at times so it didn't work. please suggest any ideas
Callback example from phpseclib:
<?php
include('Net/SSH2.php');
$ssh = new Net_SSH2('www.domain.tld');
if (!$ssh->login('username', 'password')) {
exit('Login Failed');
}
function packet_handler($str)
{
echo $str;
}
$ssh->exec('ping 127.0.0.1', 'packet_handler');
?>

Answer 1

For #1... doing $ssh->exec without the callback should work. If it doesn't I'd need to see the logs, which you can get by doing define('NET_SSH2_LOGGGING', 2) at the top and then echo $ssh->getLog() after. Posting the log at pastebin.com and then posting a link would be good. But that said, that won't get you real time output either.
For #2... the callback function is mainly intended for real-time updates and odds are very likely that what you'll get with each call of the callback function will be an incomplete output. So for your callback to output "Completed" and redirect the user to another location is, in all likelihood, incorrect.
Another approach that may work for you: use the interactive shell. Example:
http://phpseclib.sourceforge.net/ssh/examples.html#sudo,
I don't know what your output is like. Maybe you could read() until you got to certain parts of the output that are guaranteed to be output. Or maybe you could use $ssh->setTimeout(5) and get updated output every five seconds or something..