Running Scripts forever?

[Ravanol]

Hi all,

 

I have a system where I need to send thousands of small text files to a webserver - all day, every day using HTTP POST (cURL).

 

I have decided to take the load away from my database and store each XML document within a directory on the server - open file, http post file, delete file.  Read file, http post file, delete file....

 

I wish for this to happen constantly. 

 

I could use a php script - running an infinite loop to "get next file" - read, http post, delete.... but I have a gut feeling that this would be a bad idea because:

 

1) If a script is in an infinite loop - would there be a huge performance impact on the rest of the scripts running on the server?

2) If I close my web browser - the script will terminate?

 

So.. what is the best thing to do? 

 

a) Should I have a CRON job that calls the PHP script every minute (with a max execution time of say 55 seconds)?

b) Should I run the php script containing an infinite loop from the command line (which I understand will keep running because it has not been called by a client browser)?  if so, how would I terminate the script?

 

Do you guys have any other ideas?

 

Many thanks,

 

AM.

 

 

[teng84]

this is cron job..