CODEWITHSUNDEEP
phpshell-exec
joanne_
joanne_

Reputation: 117

Terminating shell_exec() after a few seconds

So I have this code where I execute a c++ program. $out simply contains the output of the program.

$cmd = "c:/Server/www/Codice/LOGS/".$_SESSION['username']."/chorva.exe";
$out = shell_exec($cmd);
echo $out;

And that works. However, I want to terminate the program after a few seconds, say after 6-10 seconds. (This is equivalent to Ctrl-Cwhen you are in a terminal.) This is so if the program executes too long (or endlessly e.g. infinite loops), it doesn't have to wait. I am also concerned with the output it produces in that time (if that's even possible). How can I do this? Thanks!

Upvotes: 2

Views: 610

Answers (1)

boobl
boobl

Reputation: 225

In Windows PHP there doesn't seem to be a way of running a program asynchronously AND reading its output AND killing it after a certain period, so I would like to recommend using an external program to do it.

I don't know if any such program already exists, but you can always create your own. And supposing you want to stick to scripting languages, here's an example of such program on VBScript

Dim WshShell, objFSO, oExec, cmd, wait, tempFile, objFile
Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")

wait = WScript.Arguments(0)
cmd = WScript.Arguments(1)
tempFile = objFSO.GetTempName()

Set oExec = WshShell.Exec(cmd & " > " & tempFile)

Do While oExec.Status <> 1
     WScript.Sleep 100
     wait = wait - 100
     If wait <= 0 Then Exit Do
Loop

oExec.Terminate()

Const ForReading = 1
Set objFile = objFSO.OpenTextFile(tempFile, ForReading)
Do While objFile.AtEndOfStream = False
    Wscript.Echo(objFile.ReadLine())
Loop
objFile.Close()
objFSO.DeleteFile(tempFile)

The script runs a program cmd, waits until it's dead in 100 millisecond ticks, and if it doesn't die in wait milliseconds, kills it. The program output is saved into a temporary file, which is read and echoed. wait and cmd are first and second script arguments. The script is run as

cscript //Nologo runcmd.vbs <time> <cmd>

Upvotes: 1

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