I decided to fork out my php script because it takes too long to run. When I ran it shell_exec() call on a local linux machine, I did not see the infinite loop problem, but on a hosted machine, the script went into an infinite loop. I reduced the code to the minimum and I hope someone can help me see the problem here:
3 scripts are involved:
test_shell.php --> issues shell_exec() to forkphp.sh --> which issues a command "path/to/php write_hello_world.php"
starting from top to bottom order, first the test_shell.php script:
<?php
if(function_exists('shell_exec')) {
echo "shell_exec() is enabled";
}
$cmd = "./forkphp.sh > /dev/null 2>&1 &";
echo "<br/> About to shell_exec($cmd)<br/>";
$out = shell_exec($cmd);
echo $out;
?>
Here is forkphp.sh:
#!/bin/bash
# About to run /usr/bin/php write_hello_world.php
echo $(/usr/bin/php write_hello_world.php)
Finally, here is write_hello_word.php :
<?php
$data = "This is a test : testing \n testing \n ";
file_put_contents ("deleteme.txt",$data);
?>
This gets an infinite loop where file 'deleteme.txt' continuously re-written . I am only guessing that I maybe misusing the '$' somewhere? Thank you in advance for help.