Re: [PHP] Persistent flag in memory

Op 2/11/10 5:42 AM, Teus Benschop schreef:
> Thank you for the hints given. I'll look into the various options given.
> The main reason for the need for a persistent flag in memory is that
> several installations where the PHP code would be deployed do not have
> access to crontab, so I am simulating crontab's functionality by letting
> a PHP script run forever. Page visits would start that script, but once
> the first visitor has started the script, next visitors would only start
> it if the script had died. Here is where the persistent flag is needed.
> Normally the script will never die unless at server reboot, or perhaps
> if some timeout limit has been exceeded. If I would touch a file in the
> filesystem as a flag, this would persist even after server reboot, so
> that means that my simulated crontab would never restart, since it looks
> like it runs. Teus.

whatever it is that your trying to do, it sounds like one of two things:

1. you have hosting that is unsuitable for your needs
2. you are tackling the problem incorrectly

at any rate, as far I'm concerned, you should never have a long running
php process via a web server. (obviously this is the point that someone
posts a brilliant use case to prove me wrong ;-)

could you detail what is is you're actuallt trying to do, chances are people
have:

a. got a better alternative
b. already invented the particular wheel you're trying to build
c. you really do need shell (or even just control panel) access to run a cron job

>