[UPHPU] Buffer output from exec call

[Wade Preston Shearer]

> Gentlemen (and I use the term loosely),

Don't forget to include our female members.

> I have a script that executes an rsync command on the backend to 
> propogate files to an FTP server.  The rsync command could take 
> several minutes to run depending on the number and size of files being 
> pushed.
>
> What I want to do is show a progress page to the end user while the 
> command is running that will refresh automatically.  Any ideas on the 
> best way to accomplish this?
>
> I had thought about something like this:
>
> Run the command from one page and background the process and redirect 
> the output to a file (rsync ... > /tmp/rsync.log 2>&1 &).   On a 
> subsequent page, just keep reading the contents of the rsync.log file 
> and display its contents while refreshing every 15 seconds or so.  
> Each time the page refreshes the output should get a little longer.
>
> One problem is how would I know the command had completed so I can 
> stop refreshing the page?
>
> Anyway, I'm a bit stumpx0r3d on this one.  Any insight is mucho 
> appreciado.

I cannot remember who it is at the moment, but there is an individual 
that I am fairly certain is subscribed to this list that has a project 
that has the functionality that you are looking for. They had put 
together a web-based chat client using PHP and javascript (if I 
remember correctly) that did not require the page to be refreshed. 
There were somehow "pushing" the content to the screen continuously I 
think.

My memory is vague about both the project and it's author. Hopefully, 
he or someone else will read this and can reply with more details.