Call php script multiple times, with unique include - php

Question

I'm trying to set up a cron job to update all of our clients. They each have their own db and directory in our web root. An individual call uses this script:
<?php
include_once 'BASEPATH'.$_REQUEST['client'].'PATHTOPHPLIB';
//Call some functions here
//backup db
$filename='db_backup_'.date('G_a_m_d_y').'.sql';
$result=exec('mysqldump '.Config::read('db.basename').' --password='.Config::read('db.password').' --user='.Config::read('db.user').' --single-transaction >BACKUPDIRECTORYHERE'.$filename,$output);
if($output=='') {
/* no output is good */
}else {
logit('Could not backup db');
logit($output);
}
?>
I need to call this same script multiple times, each with a unique include based on a client variable being passed in. We originally had a unique cron job for each client, but this is no longer a possibility. What is the best way to call this script? I'm looking at creating a new php script that will have an array of our clients and loop through it running this script, but I can't just include it because the libraries will have overlapping functions. I'm not considering cUrl because these scripts are not in the web root.

Answer 1

First off, a quick advert for the Symfony console component. There are others, but I've been using Symfony for a while and gravitate towards that. Hopefully you are PSR-0 /Composer -able in your project. Even if you aren't this could give you and excuse to do something self contained.
You absolutely don't want these sorts of scripts under the webroot. There is no value in having them run through apache, and there are limitations imposed on them in terms of memory and runtime that are different in a command line php context.
Base script:
<?php
if (PHP_SAPI != "cli") {
echo "Error: This should only be run from the command line environment!";
exit;
}
// Script name is always passed, so $argc with 1 arg == 2
if ($argc !== 2) {
echo "Usage: $argv[0] {client}\n";
exit;
}
// Setup your constants?
DEFINE('BASEPATH', '....');
DEFINE('PATHTOPHPLIB', '...');
require_once 'BASEPATH' . $argv[1] . 'PATHTOPHPLIB';
//Call some functions here
//backup db
$filename='db_backup_'.date('G_a_m_d_y').'.sql';
$result=exec('mysqldump '.Config::read('db.basename').' -- password='.Config::read('db.password').' --user='.Config::read('db.user').' --single-transaction >BACKUPDIRECTORYHERE'.$filename,$output);
if($output=='') {
/* no output is good */
} else {
logit('Could not backup db');
logit($output);
}
Calling Script Runs in cron:
<?php
// Bootstrap your master DB
// Query the list of clients
DEFINE('BASE_SCRIPT', 'fullpath_to_base_script_here');
foreach ($clients as $client) {
exec('/path/to/php ' . BASE_SCRIPT . " $client");
}
If you want to keep things decoupled inside the caller script you could pass the path to the backup processing script rather than hardwiring it, and if so, use the same techniques to get the param from $argc and $argv.