How to stop a PHP script ? Prevent emails to be sent? - php

Question

I have a php application (using a LAMP stack) that sends thousands of application. I would love to stop by force emails to be sent. I can't stop the senidng by closing the browser obviously.
Should I kill processes, or is there any other way to do so ? What process should I kill ? There may be more than one..?
PS: Of course, the application is badly designed.. but here is not the question.

Answer 1

If it's your own (self written) application, perhaps you should add some functionality that allows you to suspend or halt the execution.
One example would be on every X iterations, the script checks a resource for commands. If there are commands in the resource queue, it executes them in order, removes them and continues (if applicable).
For example, flat file or DB, you could add a STOP-SUSPEND_EXECUTION command. When your script reads that line or row out, it suspends normal execution but continues checking the resource periodically. After which if a RESUME command is read, execution resumes from where it left off as it hasn't left the iterative loop.
Now you can, either by CLI or other interface, add commands to the queue, and the application will respond accordingly.
You could even get fancy, adding timestamps to defer command execution.
PS: If you're performing tasks like mass mailing, etc., perhaps you'd consider moving these scripts to a command line interface. I mention this only based on your comment about "closing the browser".
Could use some work, but it does the trick. run() takes a callback function $job as an argument. That function represents a single iteration of whatever batch job you're doing (mass mailing, etc.) and $data as an array of data. With each iteration, $job is given the next element of the $data array as a set of arguments.
$data = array(
array('name' => 'bob', 'email' => 'bob#site.com'),
array('name' => 'jim', 'email' => 'jim#site.com'),
array('name' => 'ann', 'email' => 'ann#site.com'),
);
$job = function($name, $email){
// do something with $name
// and $email
};
$batch->run($job, $data);
You need some tables (a 'la MySQL Workbench):
CREATE SCHEMA IF NOT EXISTS `batchtest` DEFAULT CHARACTER SET latin1 COLLATE latin1_swedish_ci ;
USE `batchtest` ;
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `batchtest`.`job` (
`id` CHAR(24) NOT NULL ,
`alias` VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL ,
`status` INT NOT NULL DEFAULT 0 ,
`timestamp` TIMESTAMP NOT NULL ,
PRIMARY KEY (`id`) )
ENGINE = InnoDB;
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `batchtest`.`queue` (
`id` INT UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT ,
`job_id` CHAR(24) NOT NULL ,
`action` VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL ,
`params` TEXT NULL ,
`timestamp` TIMESTAMP NOT NULL ,
PRIMARY KEY (`id`) )
ENGINE = InnoDB;
Whenever you want to pause/resume/abort a job, add a row to the queue table with the job_id and action (pause, resume, or abort) and the job will respond. The job will automatically remove the completed commands from the queue table.
That's the gist of it.
class BatchJob{
const STATUS_STARTING = 0;
const STATUS_RUNNING = 1;
const STATUS_PAUSED = 2;
const STATUS_ABORTED = 4;
const STATUS_COMPLETED = 5;
protected $_id = null;
protected $_alias = null;
protected $_pdo = null;
protected $_pauseSleep = null;
protected $_status = self::STATUS_STARTING;
protected $_jobTable = 'job';
protected $_queueTable = 'queue';
public function __construct($pdo, $alias){
$this->_pdo = $pdo;
$this->_alias = $alias;
$this->_id = vsprintf('%04x%04x%04x%04x%04x%04x', array(
mt_rand(0, 0xffff),
mt_rand(0, 0xffff),
mt_rand(0, 0xffff),
mt_rand(0, 0xffff),
mt_rand(0, 0xffff),
mt_rand(0, 0xffff),
));
$this->output("Initializing job");
$this->_pdo->setAttribute(PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE, PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION);
$statement = $this->_pdo->prepare("INSERT INTO {$this->_jobTable} (id, alias, status) VALUES (:id, :alias, :status)");
$statement->execute(array(
':id' => $this->_id,
':alias' => $this->_alias,
':status' => $this->_status,
));
}
public function run($job, Array $data, $pauseSleep = 10){
$this->_pauseSleep = $pauseSleep;
$iteration = 0;
$this->updateStatus(self::STATUS_RUNNING);
while($this->_status != self::STATUS_ABORTED
&&$this->_status != self::STATUS_COMPLETED){
$statement = $this->_pdo->prepare("SELECT id, action, params FROM {$this->_queueTable} WHERE job_id = :job_id");
$statement->execute(array(
':job_id' => $this->_id,
));
foreach($statement->fetchAll() as $command){
switch($command['action']){
case 'resume':
$this->updateStatus(self::STATUS_RUNNING);
break;
case 'pause':
$this->updateStatus(self::STATUS_PAUSED);
break;
case 'abort':
$this->updateStatus(self::STATUS_ABORTED, true, false);
exit;
break;
}
$statement = $this->_pdo->prepare("DELETE FROM {$this->_queueTable} WHERE id = :id");
$statement->execute(array(
':id' => $command['id'],
));
}
if($this->_status == self::STATUS_PAUSED){
sleep($this->_pauseSleep);
continue;
}
call_user_func_array($job, (Array) current($data));
if(!next($data)){
$this->updateStatus(self::STATUS_COMPLETED, true, false);
}
}
}
protected function output($string){
echo ">>> [{$this->_alias}:{$this->_id}] [" . date('Y-m-d H:i:s') . "] {$string}" . PHP_EOL;
}
protected function updateStatus($status = null, $updateDatabase = true, $updateOutput = true){
if(!is_null($status)){
$this->_status = $status;
}
if($updateDatabase){
$statement = $this->_pdo->prepare("UPDATE {$this->_jobTable} SET status = :status WHERE id = :id");
$statement->execute(array(
':id' => $this->_id,
':status' => $this->_status,
));
}
if($updateOutput){
$reflection = new ReflectionClass(__CLASS__);
$statusCodes = array_flip($reflection->getConstants());
$this->output("Job status change [{$statusCodes[$this->_status]}]");
}
}
public function __destruct(){
$this->updateStatus();
}
}

Answer 2

If you can modify the script you can insert a line like this in the main cycle of the script (preferably before the mail() line):
if (connection_aborted ())
exit ();
This will stop the PHP script if you close the browser window. Although this is the default behavior php often fails to stop scripts right away.
You can do this without knowing much of the inner working of the script and it is nicer than killing Apache.

Answer 3

httpd - this will stop all of Apache.

Answer 4

Typically you would kill the web server. If you run the cgi exe you can kill that.

Answer 5

Are you asking how to shut down a php script gone wild? If so you could always restart apache. If I misunderstood your question I apologize in advance.

Answer 6

Edit your php.ini to set mail in the disabled-functions. Then php will fail to be able to use the mail function.
disable_functions = mail
http://www.php.net/manual/en/ini.core.php#ini.disable-functions