Find out when the PHP script started execution

Question

If you want to calculate the time particular PHP script has been running you do it as following:

//Remember beginning time of the script
define("START_TIME", time());

//Do some loop or whatever
   ...

//At the end, calculate the difference of start and current time
echo "This script has been running for ".(time() - START_TIME)."\n";

Well, this is all nice, but imagine you're making a class/library, that might be included later in the script and that needs to calculate the runtime too.

Is there a function in PHP that would give me the timestamp when the script was launched - or a function that would allow me to deduct that?
This is what I need:

class Blah {
    public getRuntime() {
        static $startTime = get_start_time_magic_function();
        return time() - $startTime;
    }
}

My reason to require is, that I have a "infinite" loop in a class, that should automatically end when execution limit is going to take effect. If the script was killed by PHP, that would cause harm to processed data.

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/535020/tracking-the-script-execution-time-in-php — juanrpozo, Mar 01 '14 at 20:40
How about [`$_SERVER['REQUEST_TIME']`](http://www.php.net/manual/en/reserved.variables.server.php) or (from PHP 5.4.0 on) `$_SERVER['REQUEST_TIME_FLOAT']`? While these might not technically by the script starting timestamp per se, I think the value should be close enough for most use cases. — CBroe, Mar 01 '14 at 22:07
But I’m not sure if the actual problem you are trying to solve here _should_ be solved by looking at execution times/start timestamps … especially since you say the script being killed due to max_execution_time would _“cause harm to processed data”_ – I think this is not a case for checking “do I still have more time?”, but rather for a re-write of the script to a more robust data processing. — CBroe, Mar 01 '14 at 22:09
What do you imagine being more robust data processing, may I ask? — Tomáš Zato, Mar 01 '14 at 22:40

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 07 '16 at 16:55

Quoting from http://php.net/manual/en/function.microtime.php (Example #3):

<?php
// Randomize sleeping time
usleep(mt_rand(100, 10000));

// As of PHP 5.4.0, REQUEST_TIME_FLOAT is available in the $_SERVER superglobal array.
// It contains the timestamp of the start of the request with microsecond precision.
$time = microtime(true) - $_SERVER["REQUEST_TIME_FLOAT"];

echo "Did nothing in $time seconds\n";
?>

score -1 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 01 '14 at 21:11

-1

define("START_TIME", time());
define("MAX_DURATION", 3);
while (true) {
    $current_duration = time() - START_TIME;

    // do your stuff here

    if($current_duration >= MAX_DURATION) {
        echo "This script has been running for ". $current_duration ." seconds \n";
        break;
    }
}

answered Mar 01 '14 at 21:11

Pascal Le Merrer

5,883
20
35

That is what I do now. My question was how to avoid defining start time. – Tomáš Zato Mar 01 '14 at 21:18
Define it in the script that invokes your class with the infinite loop, and pass it as a parameter. Or pass the time at which the loop must exit as a parameter. – Pascal Le Merrer Mar 01 '14 at 21:22
1

I do this now, but in my question I've stated why I consider this inaccurate. – Tomáš Zato Mar 01 '14 at 21:25

Find out when the PHP script started execution

2 Answers2