Best way to manage long-running php script?

Question

I have a PHP script that takes a long time (5-30 minutes) to complete. Just in case it matters, the script is using curl to scrape data from another server. This is the reason it's taking so long; it has to wait for each page to load before processing it and moving to the next.

I want to be able to initiate the script and let it be until it's done, which will set a flag in a database table.

What I need to know is how to be able to end the http request before the script is finished running. Also, is a php script the best way to do this?

Answer 1

Certainly it can be done with PHP, however you should NOT do this as a background task - the new process has to be dissocated from the process group where it is initiated.

Since people keep giving the same wrong answer to this FAQ, I've written a fuller answer here:

http://symcbean.blogspot.com/2010/02/php-and-long-running-processes.html

From the comments:

The short version is shell_exec('echo /usr/bin/php -q longThing.php | at now'); but the reasons why are a bit long for inclusion here.