How can one troubleshoot a PHP script that hangs indefinitely after calling exec()/shell_exec()?

If a PHP script hangs indefinitely after calling exec() or shell_exec(), it may be due to the command being executed not completing or encountering an error. To troubleshoot this, you can add a timeout parameter to the exec() or shell_exec() function to limit the execution time of the command. This will prevent the script from hanging indefinitely. 

// Set a timeout value in seconds
$timeout = 60;

// Execute the command with a timeout
$output = shell_exec("your_command_here 2>&1 & echo $!; sleep $timeout; kill $!");

// Check if the command timed out
if (empty($output)) {
    echo "Command timed out after $timeout seconds.";
} else {
    echo $output;
}

Keywords

PHP exec() shell_exec() troubleshooting hanging

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