Background process

[stevewi]

I'm trying to run a background task and it keeps dying. If I SSH into the site and start it, it runs fine. But once I exit the shell, it will eventually die. I also try to start it via the webserver. Same effect, runs for a few minutes and then disappears.

It's a PHP script that I call either via commandline or a system call from another script like:

php myscript.php >/dev/null &

I get no indication as to why it quits. Anyone got any ideas?

Thanks,

Steve

PS.

I've submitted a ticket to support, but so far all they've done is close it without answering it. I'm trying to get it reopened for the 3rd time now. Also, I ran this same script last year with no problems.

[redsox9]

Is this a candidate for a cron job?

[stevewi]

I was going to run a cron job that would check to see if the process was running and start it if it wasn't, but it's only running for a minute or two. It needs to be running all the time (for a few weeks anyhow). It's part of a fantasy soccer website and this function supports an online draft. The script runs in a while(1) loop, queries/updates some db tables, sleeps(5) and does it again. For the draft to work, it must be running.

[stevewi]

Nobody has any ideas? Still not getting any help from support.

[dkinzer]

The script runs in a while(1) loop, queries/updates some db tables, sleeps(5) and does it again.
Wouldn't you achieve same result if the script had no loop but you ran it via cron every 5 seconds?

[Smoothice]

PHP has a time out of 5 minutes. You can not run a script longer than that. This might help you.

Smoothice

[stevewi]

According to the doc on php.net, php cli overrides the php.ini setting of max_execution_time, setting it to 0 because "it does not make sense in shell environments". Plus, if I start it from SSH, it runs fine either background or foreground.

[lazynitwit]

Unless you have your own IP address, processes should be terminated automatically after a period of time if I remember correctly.

Try making it execute 12 times and making a cronjob that runs every minute.

[stevewi]

Thanks. That's the kinda of info I'm looking for from support. So far, nothing after 9 days.

[aceofspades]

yah it says "If you wish to run a script for more than 5 minutes you must buy a dedicated IP. If it is a low resource script just use a cron job.

[yvovandoorn]

If its truly dying after you disconnect, you could use GNU Screen (which is installed on the box I am hosted on).

Yvo