PHP async process communication

Question

Is there a way to achieve inter-process (or threading) communication in PHP, but still keep everything run asynchronous?

I want to have a script that creates 4 processes and then terminates immediately. Each of the 4 processes should do an action and when finished it should notify someone (another script maybe?) that it finished. So I want to know when all of the 4 scripts are done, so I can update my status from retrieving to done.

Is this possible? Preferably without re-compiling PHP (I read this is required for working with threads), but I will do that if necessary.

Answer 1

You can use a job queueing system or stick it into CRON. PHP has support for a few job queues, but I have used Gearman in the past and I have written a custom wrapper around the Linux at command. Both of these could be used to achieve "thread-like" behaviour without recompiling PHP.

Answer 2

As others have mentioned, Gearman is one solution. The other, one I actually prefer, is creating an asynchronous message queue where you add jobs on the job stack.

I'm using ZeroMQ for such purposes, and there's a PHP framework available that implements ZeroMQ for async tasks called Photon. Browsing Photon's source might give you some ideas on how to implement async job queue in case you decide to go with it.

Answer 3

Gearman may provide what you are looking for.