okay so i thoguth about using shell_exec($cmd), however it only returns when it finishes.

i need to monitor that a program or job is running ie. exec("wget -r some.com")
and check every 25 seconds that the output doesn't have "Finished"

is this possible to do this in php with a while loop ?

okay so i thoguth about using shell_exec($cmd), however it only returns when it finishes.

i need to monitor that a program or job is running ie. exec("wget -r some.com")
and check every 25 seconds that the output doesn't have "Finished"

is this possible to do this in php with a while loop ?

Yes, the exec tools are what you're looking for...

If go to: http://us3.php.net/manual/en/ref.exec.php

proc_open to get a handler, then proc_get_status periodically. :)

You may also need to check sooner than 25 seconds as I seem to recall it's easy to miss status changes...

Use nohup and run wget in the background so you won't have to wait until script is finished. Do loop check if process is running. Here is the sample code:


$PID = shell_exec("nohup wget -r some.com > /dev/null & echo $!");

function is_process_running($PID){
exec("ps $PID", $ProcessState);
return(count($ProcessState) >= 2);
}

while(is_process_running($TaskPID))
{
echo ".";
ob_flush(); flush();
sleep(2);
}