running a php script as a daemon

Question

I have a program the is used to provision a VPS via API. The core part of the script will keep hitting the API (every 5 second, 15 times) till the API spits back an IP address. It takes about 30 sec to execute.

There is no error in the code and the program performs it's function with 97% reliability.

But if an enduser gets impatient and clicks away, the script will end prematurely and my system breaks.

Is there a way to execute a portion of a php script as a deamon running in the background? That way if the user clicks away on accident, the process still runs? Or some other method?

script:

<?php
session_start();
require_once('../pages/mail/config.php');
DCID=1&VPSPLANID=1&SNAPSHOTID=df55172be2c87');

$cust_label = $_POST['sname'];;


//here we provision the server with vultr
$ch = curl_init();

curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL,"https://api.vultr.com/v1/server/create?api_key=nnnnnn1eSKIee");
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS,
        "DCID=19&VPSPLANID=31&OSID=164&SNAPSHOTID=c24554280420a&label=".$cust_label."&enable_ipv6=yes");
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
$server_output = curl_exec ($ch);
curl_close ($ch);

//recovering the IP takes a little while
sleep(15);
echo 'first we get your IPv4 address';
//now we need the ip address
function getlist(){
        $list_output = file_get_contents('https://api.vultr.com/v1/server/list?api_key=ddddddIOCe');
        return $list_output;
}


$output = getlist();
$decoded = json_decode($output, true);
foreach($decoded as $value) {
        $ip = $value['main_ip'];
        $label = $value['label'];
        $subid = $value['SUBID'];
        //if the label matched the current on it session, get that data
        if($label === $cust_label) {
                $ipr = $ip;
        }
}
//this one will get it
for ($x = 0; $x <= 15; $x++){
        if($ipr === '0'){
                sleep(5);
                $output2 = getlist();
                $decoded2 = json_decode($output2, true);
                foreach($decoded2 as $value2) {
                        $ipd = $value2['main_ip'];
                        $label = $value2['label'];
                        $subid = $value['SUBID'];
                        if($label === $cust_label){
                                $ipr = $ipd;
                                break;
                        }
                }
        }
}
//no IPv4 is bad. error out and send a message to admin
if($ipr === '0'){
        echo 'Something bad happened, we did not get and IP address back. A message has been sent to admin to review your account';
        echo '<a id="ticket" target="_self" href="support/viewforum.php?f=4">Support Portal</a>';
        echo '<a id="home" target="_self" href="index.php?p=home"><i>Home</i></a>';

        $to      = 'postmaster@ex-ler.com';
        $subject = 'New entry failure';
        $message = 'VPS initialization error occured';
        $headers = 'From: postmaster@ex-ler.com' . "\r\n" .
                'Reply-To: webmaster@ex-ler.com' . "\r\n" .
                'X-Mailer: PHP/' . phpversion();

        mail($to, $subject, $message, $headers);
        exit();
}

//let's try and get the IPv6
$output3 = getlist();

$decoded3 = json_decode($output3, true);
foreach($decoded3 as $value3) {
        $ipv6 = $value['v6_main_ip'];
        $label = $value['label'];
        $subid = $value['SUBID'];
        if($label === $cust_label) {
                $ipr6 = $ipv6;
        }
}
$count = 0;
for ($x = 0; $x <= 25; $x++){
        if(empty($ipr6)){
                sleep(5);
                echo 'here '.$x;
                $output4 = getlist();
                $decoded4 = json_decode($output4, true);
                foreach($decoded4 as $value4) {
                        $ipdv6 = $value4['v6_main_ip'];
                        $label = $value4['label'];
                        $subid = $value['SUBID'];
                        if($label === $cust_label){
                                $ipr6 = $ipdv6;
                                break;
                        }
                }
        }
}
$_SESSION['label'] = $value['label'];
$_SESSION['SUBID'] = $value['SUBID'];
var_dump($_SESSION['SUBID']);

$domain = $_SESSION['DOMAIN'];
//now sink the IPs into the database
$pdo = new PDO(
        'mysql:host=' . DB_HOST . ';dbname=' . DB_DATABASE, DB_USER, DB_PASSWORD
);
$pdo->setAttribute(PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE, PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION);
$pdo->setAttribute(PDO::ATTR_EMULATE_PREPARES, false);
//$sql = 'INSERT into domains(label, ipv4) VALUES (:label, :ipaddress)';
$sql = 'UPDATE domains SET subid = :subid, label = :label, ipv4 = :ipaddress, ipv6 = :ipv6address WHERE domain = :domain';

$statement = $pdo->prepare($sql);
$statement->bindParam(':label', $cust_label, PDO::PARAM_STR, 12);
$statement->bindParam(':ipv6address', $ipr6, PDO::PARAM_STR, 48);
$statement->bindParam(':ipaddress', $ipr, PDO::PARAM_STR, 12);
$statement->bindParam(':domain', $domain, PDO::PARAM_STR, 255);
$statement->bindParam(':subid', $subid, PDO::PARAM_INT, 14);

$result = $statement->execute();



//go to member profile
header("location: ../index.php?p=member-profile");

?>

possible duplicate of [PHP Background Processes](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/265073/php-background-processes) — icktoofay, Jul 26 '15 at 21:39

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 26 '15 at 21:43

1

Use this:

ignore_user_abort(true);

So if the user closes the window, PHP script continues to run until it finishes.

More information Here

answered Jul 26 '15 at 21:43

Sky

4,244
7
54
83

looking into this. This may be 'the beautiful one'. – NIX Jul 26 '15 at 22:36

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 26 '15 at 21:44

you could try splitting your curl stuff off into a child process and then returning in the parent process. the command you'd use would be pcntl_fork()

http://php.net/manual/en/function.pcntl-fork.php

here's a sample mockup of how you could do this: just put your curl code into the child process block (around where the sleep() is executed) and see if meets your requirements:

<?php

// this variable is here to prove that variables set outside of the 
// child process' 'if' block can be accessed
$outsideVariable = "i'm from outside";

// fork starts a copy of this script
$pid = pcntl_fork();

// if the return from pcntl_fork() is -1, things have gone awry
if($pid == -1){
    die("could not spawn child process. do some error handling";
}

// this is the code that gets executed in the original 'parent'
// process. you do html output here so the user doesn't have to 
// wait for the email to be set.
else if($pid == 0){
    print "return to user and stop execution";
    return true;
}

// this is the child process, the copy of the process that is
// spawned seperately. you can do your curl 
// stuff here.
else {
    sleep(10); // simluating execution lag

    // let's write to file to confirm the child process is doing 
    // stuff. we use $outsideVariable  to show that this process
    // can access stuff from the scope of the parent.
    $fp = fopen("/tmp/foo","a");
    fwrite($fp, "chil pid $pid $outsideVariable \n");
}
?>

running a php script as a daemon

2 Answers2