PHP script launching multiple times

Question

I have a PHP script that launches another script in the background. Recently my host upgraded PHP and this pair relaunches the background script multiple times a second where it should only be launching once.

I reduced the two scripts to their most basic form and they still have the problem.

start.php:

<?php exec("/home/s*****/public_html/sandbox/process/pushupdate.php &"); ?>

and pushupdate.php:

#!/usr/bin/php -q
<?php mail('*********@gmail.com', 'test output', 'testing'); ?>

The email never gets sent, but that may be a problem with my hosting company.

For the record, removing #!/usr/bin/php -q and running exec("/usr/bin/php /home/s*****/public_html/sandbox/process/pushupdate.php &"); has the same results. Running from a cron job however, works. — David Beck
– David Beck, Commented Aug 26, 2010 at 19:02
I have tried this test on several different servers, and the only common factor I can find is Cpanel. — David Beck
– David Beck, Commented Apr 29, 2011 at 21:08

Lekensteyn · Accepted Answer · 2010-08-26 17:35:17Z

2

Do your host allow cronjobs? If yes, use them instead of calling pushupdate.php from another PHP script. You'll solve two problems: if no-one is visting your site, your mail queue will still be processed. If your site is busy, there won't be unnescessary calls to pushupdate.php

A possible cause is a redirect, e.g. example.com to www.example.com.

start.php is called by the visitor, right?

answered Aug 26, 2010 at 17:35

Lekensteyn

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6 Comments

David Beck Over a year ago

start.php is NOT called by the visitor. It is called by an admin from behind a password protected directory. You can't see it here, but there was logic to not launch if it was already running.

Marco Demaio Over a year ago

@David Beck: you could also use cron jobs to call scripts in admin area, by calling the php command: "php /home/s*****/public_html/sandbox/process/pushupdate.php >/dev/null 2>&1" Actually I thought you should call the php cammand also in your exec.

David Beck Over a year ago

Running as a cron works. I would like to find out why running using exec doesn't work though.

Lekensteyn Over a year ago

If you look in your Apache access logs, does 'start.php' occurs more than once in a short term?

David Beck Over a year ago

The logs do not show more than one request (as it should). I was able to run the script on my local computer without any problem.

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