shell_exec hangs?

[MobileCS]

Is it possible to use shell_exec in sources/Subs-Post.php?

After pressing the "Post" button, the post gets posted but the browser continues to show the loading animation and just hangs on the editor screen indefinitely until it times out.

The code I am using is :

Code Select Expand

shell_exec("/usr/local/bin/php /www/example.com/forum/do-stuff.php &> /dev/null");

When I use this code is a stand alone php file, it works just fine without issues. However, adding in to Subs-Post.php causes it hang.

Am I doing something wrong?

[vbgamer45]

It should be.

Why are doing a shell exec to excute a php file on the same server?

[MobileCS]

Using shell_exec, I can run the PHP process in the background so it's non blocking (performing a couple cURL commands).

[vbgamer45]

ok yeah i do something similar at times. I have a cron/task scheluded that looks for jobs to run. Then excites them like that behind the scenes. But the task is on it's cron/scheduled task loop.

[MobileCS]

Ah, that method just might work for me ... I can store my information in MySQL and just use cron to check every 5 minutes for jobs to do.

[MobileCS]

Just wanted to post the solution before marking this as solved.

Code Select Expand

exec("/usr/local/bin/php /www/example.com/forum/do-stuff.php > /dev/null 2>&1 &");

The & symbol at the end triggers it to run as a background process.