PHP Restart Lighttpd doesn't return

Question

I have a php script which needs to restart lighttpd. The php page never returns to the client. I believe that is because the call doesn't return. Here is my code:

 <?php

 exec("/etc/init.d/lighttpd restart");
 echo "Restarted!";

 ?>

If I comment out the exec line it returns as expected. How can I get this call to return?

Thanks,

EV

Answer 1

If you restart you httpd process your scripts will be terminated, no matter what you do!

You will never make any scripts to return a value directly from PHP. To make that work you should add a javascript and check for a 200 Status Code.

Answer 2

It's because your script kills the existing Lighthttpd process before it is able to return the result of the execution...

It is like having a process that kills himself and wondering why the process is not returning anything...