PHP background scripting

[sklein99]

I have a PHP script which needs to run in the background (it invokes 3rd party web services which take several seconds to respond).  I've tried (among other things) to use an exec call:

 

$sitePath = $siteConfig['sitePath'];

$exec_cmd = "/usr/bin/php ".$sitePath."/quote/quotePricing.php > /dev/null 2>&1 &";

exec($exec_cmd);

 

I've tested the called script stand alone (it does a simple DB insert for now for testing) and it works fine, but it does not work when called with exec.

 

In general, I can't seem to get my script to exec another PHP script - I've tried other Unix commands and they work fine (e.g. ls -l).

 

How can I troubleshoot this further?  When I remove the redirection and background execution, my calling script just blocks.  I tried redirecting errors, but the resulting file is empty (e.g. 2>/tmp/errortext.txt).

 

Thanks

Steve