How can long-term processes be managed in PHP to avoid hitting the execution time limit, such as running scripts as Cron jobs instead of through the web server?

Long-term processes in PHP can be managed by running scripts as Cron jobs instead of through the web server. This approach allows the script to run in the background without being subject to the execution time limit imposed by the web server. By scheduling the script to run at regular intervals using Cron, you can ensure that the process is able to complete without being interrupted.

// Example of a PHP script that can be run as a Cron job
// This script will perform some long-term processing without being subject to the web server's execution time limit

// Set the maximum execution time to unlimited
set_time_limit(0);

// Perform long-term processing here
// This could include tasks like data processing, file manipulation, etc.

// Example output for logging purposes
echo "Long-term process completed at " . date('Y-m-d H:i:s') . "\n";