I need to use an Apache handler to run a PHP script, rather than running it through CLI. I'm using APC user cache, which stores variables using the Apache process. If I run my PHP script through CLI, then it won't have access to the APC variables.
A possible solution is creating a directory restricted to localhost and putting my scripts in there. Then, I can use a browser to run the PHP scripts. However, I'm not too experienced with Linux and I don't know how to implement this. Here's how I need it to work:
One of the cron job fires.
The cron job opens the PHP script using a web browser.
After the PHP script is finished processing, the web browser closes.
I don't know how to close the browser once the task is finished. Also, multiple PHP scripts will be running simultaneously (called by different cron jobs), I'm not sure how this will work. I'm using the Lynx browser on CentOS.
In Debian/Ubuntu I can run a script using lynx, say
/usr/bin/lynx -source 'url'
For eg:
/usr/bin/lynx -source http://google.com
Once execution is completed, the browser quits default.
Related
My server has a lot of photos saved. I would like to archive (.zip) those photos and download it from the server. I have created a PHP script to make archive those photos into a .zip file and download it.
If I execute that file directly through the browser, it's getting a timeout error. So I have created a CRON job to execute the script. But I only need to execute the CRON job whenever I need it. (Like clicking a button to execute the script).
Thanks for all the help!
See the set_time_limit function to prevent your timeout error.
http://php.net/manual/en/function.set-time-limit.php
As for running a cron as-needed, that isn't how a cron works. A cron executes a command at a set interval. A PHP script can include code to exit immediately if it's processing isn't needed. You will need to create some way to signal to the script if it needs to run or not. You could do this by updating a file or database record.
Alternatively you can use an application server to execute commands (scripts) as-needed via web service calls. PHP doesn't have good support for multi-threading which is needed for most application servers so you will likely need to use Java, Python, or Ruby to create web services to launch scripts as-needed in real time. You can then call these web services from PHP using cURL functions.
I have tried reading and have understood PHP console to be a command-line interface (CLI) like one used in composer. I do not understand the difference between a web script and a console script. I do not see the use of having the two.
I want to crawl data from a certain link. Should I use a console script or web script and why?
Please explain in the simplest manner possible.
There is no difference between the two. In most instances, the same PHP script will run whether you execute it from the command line or via the web.
There is, however, a difference between the environment the script will execute within. A CLI script is initiated from and executed within your shell on your computer. It is very self-contained. A web script, on the other hand, is (typically) initiated via a HTTP request from a browser, passes over the web to a web server, is executed on that remote server and a result (typically a web page) is passed back to your browser. In the latter case, there are special environment variables related to the web request made available to the script.
It's a bit hard to know which is the best case for your web crawler script without knowing more detail. But I'd say a command line script is what you're after.
One difference between a web page and a CLI instance is the way the script is executed: webpages will be loaded via a web container, while CLI's will be usually executed by the shell used to launch the PHP. Due to this, a CLI might not have access to all $_SERVER variables as the webpage as practically there is no HTTP request involved.
CLI scripts are useful for doing background tasks that are not initiated by the web server, for example a cron job that periodically cleans your database, on one that executes queued jobs. Think of CLI as shell scripts, you can write a PHP script instead of a bash one.
The PHP interpreter is the same in both cases, and it's up to you to decide which one suits best your needs: webpages are more common, however if you need to have you server do some work without waiting for a web request, the you can go with CLI.
Well, basically a console script is the way for your task.
The difference resides in the fact a Webscript will block your browser, will not show your progress real-time, etc.
I was able to crawl and download about 6000 images from my beloved anime with a console script, showing the progress status, something harder with a Web script as the browser will cache the output. Also you can chain your script and also make some cron magic(assuming you are on nix box)
Okay, this is going to be a very weird request/question.
There is a very long running PHP script that needs to be launched by the user (admin) who is not very technically adept. When running the script through apache, it throws a timeout (502 or 504 Bad Gateway).
Let's just assume that apache can't be configured to fix the timeout issues.
I want to create a button in the admin panel that sends an AJAX call to a PHP script on the server, that PHP script will act as a proxy of sorts to launch a shell command. The shell command will then execute the long running PHP script with certain arguments... but I don't want it to wait for the long running script to finish. The proxy PHP script can exit and return true/false based on if the shell command actually started (this part is optional).
Essentially, have PHP launch a shell command which launches a PHP script.
How can I pull something like this off?
Have you tried shell_exec. It worked for me...
http://php.net/manual/en/function.shell-exec.php
I wanted to use my local server which is running Windows 7 to take advantage of the task scheduler to setup some cron jobs for some of my php files.
I can do this currently by:
start http://theurl
Which opens in my default browser. However I was hoping to accomplish this without physically opening a browser so when I come back to my computer after a few days I don't have millions of Chrome windows open.
How can I load a URL in Task scheduler without opening a browser client via cmd?
I was able to accomplish the cron job by using a program called wget. I setup task scheduler to run the wget.exe at my specified time with these arguments:
wget -q -O - http://theurl.com > tmp.txt
This would load the website and store it to a temporary text file which is overwritten next time it is used.
If you just want to run some php files you don't need a browser. You can just run it from the commandline:
php -f /path/to/php/file.php
However if you really need to access a page you can do several things like: file_get_contents() or making a cURL request from PHP.
You don't need cmd or shell access. If your host has the HTTP wrapper enabled, a call to file_get_contents() is all you need:
file_get_contents( 'http://theurl');
You can also use fopen() if you're not interested in the response from the server.
I am working on a site that require a php script running on a server without any request,
it is a bot script that keeps (not full time but at least once a day) checking client accounts and send alert messages to clients when something happens.
any ideas are appreciated.
Assuming you need to do this on linux, you may run any php script from the browser and from the CLI as well.
You may run a simple php script:
<? echo "Ana are mere"; ?>
like this:
php -f ./index.php
Be careful about file-permissions, and any bug that may creep inside your code, memory leaks or unallocated variables will become VERY visible now, as the process will run continuously.
If you dont want it running in the background all the time, take a look at crontab (http://unixgeeks.org/security/newbie/unix/cron-1.html) to be able to start jobs regularly.
-- edit--
take a look at php execute a background process and PHP: How to return information to a waiting script and continue processing
Basically you want to start a background process, and you may do this by either using exec() or fsockopen() or a file_get_contents() on your own script probably in this order, if don't have access to exec, or socket functions.
Also take a look at http://us2.php.net/manual/en/function.session-write-close.php so the "background script" won't "block" the request and http://us2.php.net/manual/en/function.ignore-user-abort.php
Use a cron job to do it http://www.cronjobs.org/
You can automatically call a script at any interval you like indefinitely. Your hosting provider should support them if they are good.
You should also consider putting a unique key on the end of the page
ie. www.yoursite.com/cronjob.php?key=randomstring
and then only run the script if the key is correct, to prevent bots and other users from running the script when you don't want it run.
If you can't create a cron job, then create a page that does what you want and create a scheduled task on another machine (maybe your PC?) that just goes out and hits that page at a certain time every day.
It's really a hack, but if you absolutely can't set up a cron job, it would be an option.
As Evernoob and Quamis said, you want to have a cron job (UNIX/Linux/Mac OS) or a scheduled task (MS Windows). Furthermore, you can either have the PHP script run using the PHP command line interface (CLI), in which case you can invoke the PHP executable and then your script name. As an alternate, you can use a tool like wget (availble on all platforms) to invoke the PHP script as if someone had typed the URL in the location bar of a web browser.
A php script could not be used like you imagine here. Because it's executed through apache after a request from somewhere.
Even if you do while(1) in your script, apache/php will automaticly stop your script.
Responding to your comment, yes you'll need ssh access to do this, except if your web interface allow you to add cronjob.
Maybe you can write a service which can be executed with a program on another server and do the job.
If you have no access to the server the easiest way would probably be to hit it through the browser, but that would require you or an external script hitting the URL at the same interval each day when you wanted it to one. You may also be able to setup a Selenium test suite that runs locally on a schedule and hits the page. I'm not 100% if that's possible with Selenium though, you may need some 3rd-party apps to make it happen.
Something else you could try would be to see about using PHP's Process Control Functions (link). These will let you create a script that is a deamon and runs in the background. You may be able to do this to keep the script running on the server and firing off commands at programmed intervals. You will still need some way to get it running the first time (browser request or via command line) though.