I have the following web php code:
while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($results, MYSQL_NUM))
{
printf("<p>ID: %s</p>", $row[0]);
echo exec ("php analysis.php " .escapeshellcmd($row[0]));
}
For a set of 4k users, the following code takes 15 minutes to execute with the results being displayed in increments of of ~1k users.
I want the results displayed at around the speed that the code is going so that anybody using the page is confused as to weather or not the code works. Is there some way to force the browser to display the data it was sent?
edit:
Flush is not producing noticeably different output.
edit:
My problem remains unresolved? Is there some client server model that can be implemented in JavaScript to facilitate this? Can Javascript open a socket and interrupt on socket data? Maybe using flash(which I know can use sockets...)
echo exec(...) waits before the command is finished. If you do not mind showing partial info, use passthru(...).
Depending on your webserver, flush may work or not. If output buffering is enabled (implicitly using ob_start() or explicitly in php.ini), ob_flush() needs to be called as well.
Maybe you can set it up as a stream and fread from it? Combined with flush.
I'm always running into solid walls when trying to read output from exec or system or one of the many ways to call command-line programs from PHP ~_~
Try flushing the output buffer using flush:
while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($results, MYSQL_NUM))
{
printf("<p>ID: %s</p>", $row[0]);
echo exec ("php analysis.php " .escapeshellcmd($row[0]));
flush();
}
If your server uses output buffering, use ob_flush after calling ob_start at the start of the script.
Related
I'm trying to find a way in which I can echo out the output of an exec call, and then flush that to the screen while the process is running. I have written a simple PHP script which accepts a file upload and then converts the file if it is not the appropriate file type using FFMPEG. I am doing this on a windows machine. Currently my command looks like so:
$cmd = "ffmpeg.exe -i ..\..\uploads\\".$filename." ..\..\uploads\\".$filename.".m4v 2>&1";
exec( $cmd, $output);
I need something like this:
while( $output ) {
print_r( $output);
ob_flush(); flush();
}
I've read about using ob_flush() and flush() to clear the output buffer, but I only get output once the process has completed. The command works perfectly, It just doesn't update the Page while converting. I'd like to have some output so the person knows what's going on.
I've set the time out
set_time_limit( 10 * 60 ); //5 minute time out
and would be very greatful if someone could put me in the right direction. I've looked at a number of solutions which come close one Stackoverflow, but none seem to have worked.
Since the exec call is a blocking call you have no way of using buffers to get status.
Instead you could redirect the output in the system call to a log file. Let the client query the server for progress update in which case the server could parse the last lines of the log file to get information about current progress and send it back to the client.
exec() is blocking call, and will NOT return control to PHP until the external program has terminated. That means you cannot do anything to dump the output on a line-by-line basis because PHP is suspended while the external app is running.
For what you want, you need to use proc_open, which returns a filehandle you can read from in a loop. e.g.
$fh = proc_open('.....');
while($line = fgets($fh)) {
print($line);
flush();
}
There are two problems with this approach:
The first is that, as #Marc B notes, the fact that exec will block until it's finished. You'll have to devise some way of measuring progress.
The second is that using ob_flush() in this way amounts to holding the connection between server & client open and dribbling the data out a little at a time. This is not something that the HTTP protocol was designed for and while it might work sometimes, it's not going to work consistently - different browsers and different servers will time out differently. The better way to do it is via AJAX calls: using Javascript's setTimeout() function (or setInterval()), make a call to the server periodically and have the server send back a progress report.
Good day!
I am having some issues with getting the echo statement to output before the execution of the exec()
<?
if (isset($_POST['ipaddress'])) {
$escaped_command = escapeshellcmd($_POST['ipaddress']);
if(filter_var($escaped_command, FILTER_VALIDATE_IP)) {
echo "Gleaning ARP information, please wait..";
$command = exec('sudo /sbin/getarp.exp');
The echo statement is being outputted after the execution of the $command. The execution time can be anywhere from 15-30 seconds depending on how large the ARP table on the remote router is. Is there an order of operations that I am not aware of? It appears that all the statements within the if statement are executed in parallel and not by line by line as I had assumed.
I would rather not a solution be provided, but some documentational links that would lead me to finding a solution. I have searched what I could, but was not able to find a viable solution.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks.
This is happening because the script will run in its entirety before any result/output is sent to the browser.
In PHP there is a concept of "output buffering".
Whenever you output something (e.g. using echo, print, etc.) the text is thrown into a buffer. This buffer is only sent at certain times (at the end of the request, for instance, or when the buffer is full).
In order to empty the buffer (to "flush" it) you need to do it manually. The flush() function will do this. Sometimes you also need to call ob_flush() (this is if you have opened custom output buffers yourself). It is generally a good idea to just call both functions and be done with it:
echo 'Wait a few seconds...';
flush(); ob_flush();
sleep(3);
echo ' aaand we are done!';
See Output Buffering Control for more information on output buffering in PHP.
This is probably an issue with the output buffer. PHP buffers output and writes it to the browser in chunks. Try adding a call to ob_flush() between the echo and the exec(); this will force PHP to write the current contents of the buffer to the browser.
By default, php does not send any of the output until the php script is done running completely. There is a solution. However, I hear it is a little browser dependent. I would test it on different systems and browsers to see if it is working:
ob_implicit_flush (true)
Put that before any of your echo/print commands and that should allow anything printed to show right up on the browser.
A more universal approach would be to integrate your page with asynchronous javascript. A process commonly referred to as "AJAX". It is a little more difficult because it requires the use of many interacting scripts, some client-side and some server-side. However, AJAX is the defacto way to do thing like this on the web.
I have a script that shows a result done then i call an include file to run at intervals. I would like the script result to display on browser then include file will run in the back. Right now my browser is connecting but showing nothing.I would like the browser echo Done and Logging.
<?php
ob_implicit_flush(true);
require_once('syslog.php');
$syslog = new Syslog();
$line="My msg";
$hostname = gethostname();
$ip= #$REMOTE_ADDR;
$hostnameip = GetHostByName($ip);
$syslog->Send('127.0.9.1', $hostname." ".$hostnameip." ".$line);
echo"Done";
echo "Logging......";
ob_end_flush();
include('execute.php');
?>
I believe you'll be able to get what you want by calling the flush() method right after your echo commands.
The flush() function is described as -
Flushes the write buffers of PHP and whatever backend PHP is using (CGI, a web server, etc). This attempts to push current output all the way to the browser with a few caveats.
There are some special considerations when using this function. Certain apache modules and client side buffering will still be enforced, but for now however, I do believe this will help.
Try flush() before include after last echo.
I have a php script that uses cURL and takes about 10-15 minutes to execute. What it does, it parses about 1000 pages looking for specific matches and throughout the script I have diagnostic messages echo'ed out, like "Going to the next page", "Found a match", "Error loading page" ... The way it works now (and the way that it's normal) is it executes for like 10 minutes and only then spits out all my custom messages.
I would like to be able to display those messages as they happen, not when the script is done executing. I was thinking something like AJAX would do it, but am not sure how it would work. Any tips are greatly appreciated. Thanks.
So, this is a old post but I found a solution for this. As I also have to make the same thing, output when the script is still running. Not any answer from here helped.
First of all, I am using Win32 server(production) and XAMPP as local for tests. This example is just a proof of concept and can be modified as you please.
<?php
ob_implicit_flush(true);
for($i=1; $i<=10; $i++){
echo "$i ...<br>";
for($k = 0; $k < 40000; $k++) echo ' ';
sleep(1);
}
?>
So, we open output buffer as implicit. Then we make a demo loop to count from 1 to 10 and display the values as they are been processed. Second loop will fill in the browsers buffer. And finally to check if everything is working well we make a sleep for 1 second. Otherwise the script will run too fast and we could not know if we achieved the goal.
Hope this helps !
You could create a staging table.
The PHP script could, instead of echo'ing the message, store them into a database table (possibly memory table for performance).
You could then periodically poll a seperate PHP script using ajax, which would query the table, and return any new messages to the client.
Use flush to immediately send output to the browser, by flushing the output buffer.
echo "foo";
flush();
echo "bar";
flush();
Actually you're looking for something like flush and ob_flush, however bear in mind that there are a lot of factors that can prevent your output from being flush'd as it happens.
From the flush documentation you'll get:
Several servers, especially on Win32, will still buffer the output from your script until it terminates before transmitting the results to the browser.
Server modules for Apache like mod_gzip may do buffering of their own that will cause flush() to not result in data being sent immediately to the client.
I'm using the #ob_flush() after every echo. In this example PHP_EOL creates a new line after $string
function output($string){
echo $string.PHP_EOL;
#ob_flush();
}
Basically, have your script write HTML output to a temporary log file. Then use ajax to periodically update the end-user's browser with the temporary log file. jQuery will make quick work of this.
Ajax is the only guaranteed way to get it to work on all browsers. Here is a quote from PHP's flush page.
flush() may not be able to override
the buffering scheme of your web
server and it has no effect on any
client-side buffering in the browser.
It also doesn't affect PHP's userspace
output buffering mechanism. This means
you will have to call both ob_flush()
and flush() to flush the ob output
buffers if you are using those.
Sounds to be like you have output buffering turned on.
Calling ob_end_flush() will print what's currently in the buffer, and turn off the buffer for the rest of the script execution.
You can use the flush() function to send all the content of the buffer to the client. http://php.net/manual/fr/function.flush.php
You could use both flush and ob_flush, reminding to set the content type header:
<?php
header( 'Content-type: text/html; charset=utf-8' );
for( $i = 0 ; $i < 10 ; $i++ ){
echo $i . '<br>';
flush();
ob_flush();
sleep(1);
}
Source: dermeister note in php.net ob_flush page.
Tested on Firefox 42.0 and Chrome 46.0
I have a php script that connects 10 different servers to get data. I want it to print the results of the 1st connection before the second one begins.
Using flush and/or ob_flush, you should get what you want.
Here is a quick demonstration :
for ($i=0 ; $i<10 ; $i++) {
echo "$i<br />";
ob_flush();
flush();
sleep(1);
}
Each second, a number will be sent to the browser, without waiting for the loop/script to end.
(Without both flush and ob_flush, it waits until the end of the script to send the output)
Explanation about why you need both, quoting from the flush page in the manual :
Flushes the write buffers of PHP and
whatever backend PHP is using (CGI, a
web server, etc). This attempts to
push current output all the way to the
browser with a few caveats.
flush() may not be able to override
the buffering scheme of your web
server and it has no effect on any
client-side buffering in the browser.
It also doesn't affect PHP's userspace
output buffering mechanism. This means
you will have to call both ob_flush()
and flush() to flush the ob output
buffers if you are using those.
If this doesn't work for you, taking a look at the comments on the two pages of the manual can give you a couple of pointers on "why it could fail"
ob_end_flush
http://us.php.net/ob_end_flush
This function empties the output buffer and disables output buffering. Everything after this function is send to the browser immediately.
Yeah, ob_flush should do it. I do this all the time with a LOOONG page, when I want to watch the progress of the operation.