Running PHP script from command line as background process

I’m trying to run a PHP script continually in the background via the command line in Linux. I have tried the command php filename.php & but it seems like the script execution terminates very quickly, while it should keep running until the process is terminated.

Any suggestions?

Answer

Are you sure the script doesn’t contain any errors? This is what normally makes “execution terminates very quickly“.
First, append:

error_reporting(E_ALL); ini_set('display_errors', 1);

at the top of your script to display any errors it may have, then you can use :

nohup php filename.php &

nohup runs a command even if the session is disconnected or the user logs out.

OR

nohup php filename.php >/dev/null 2>&1 &

Same as above but doesn’t create nohup.out file.

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You can also use:
ignore_user_abort(1);

Set whether a client disconnect should abort script execution

`set_time_limit(0);`

Limits the script maximum execution time, in this case it will run until the process finishes or the apache process restarts.

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#Notes The php and the filename.php paths may be provided as a full-path, instead of php and filename.php, you can use /usr/bin/php and /full/path/to/filename.php.
Full Path is recommended to avoid file not found errors.