ignore_user_abort

(PHP 4, PHP 5, PHP 7, PHP 8)

ignore_user_abortSet whether a client disconnect should abort script execution

Description

ignore_user_abort(?bool $enable = null): int

Sets whether a client disconnect should cause a script to be aborted.

When running PHP as a command line script, and the script's tty goes away without the script being terminated then the script will die the next time it tries to write anything, unless enable is set to true

Parameters

enable

If set and not null, this function will set the ignore_user_abort ini setting to the given enable. Otherwise, this function will only return the previous setting without changing it.

Return Values

Returns the previous setting, as an integer.

Changelog

Version Description
8.0.0 enable is nullable now.

Examples

Example #1 A ignore_user_abort() example

<?php
// Ignore user aborts and allow the script
// to run forever
ignore_user_abort(true);
set_time_limit(0);

echo
'Testing connection handling in PHP';

// Run a pointless loop that sometime
// hopefully will make us click away from
// page or click the "Stop" button.
while(1)
{
// Did the connection fail?
if(connection_status() != CONNECTION_NORMAL)
{
break;
}

// Sleep for 10 seconds
sleep(10);
}

// If this is reached, then the 'break'
// was triggered from inside the while loop

// So here we can log, or perform any other tasks
// we need without actually being dependent on the
// browser.
?>

Notes

PHP will not detect that the user has aborted the connection until an attempt is made to send information to the client. Simply using an echo statement does not guarantee that information is sent, see flush().

See Also

add a note

User Contributed Notes 6 notes

up
57
spiritual-coder at spiritual-coder dot com
18 years ago
If you want to simulate a crontask you must call this script once and it will keep running forever (during server uptime) in the background while "doing something" every specified seconds (= $interval):

<?php
ignore_user_abort
(1); // run script in background
set_time_limit(0); // run script forever
$interval=60*15; // do every 15 minutes...
do{
// add the script that has to be ran every 15 minutes here
// ...
sleep($interval); // wait 15 minutes
}while(true);
?>
up
29
lukas dot starecek at centrum dot cz
14 years ago
Comment from Anonymous is not 100% valid. Time from sleep function is not counted to execution time because sleep delays program execution (see http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.sleep.php and comments). We tested it and it's true. Try this:

<?php

set_time_limit
(2);
sleep(4);
echo
'hi!';
sleep(4);
echo
'bye bye!';

?>

It means, that if the loop most of the time will be at sleep (and in this case it probably be), then this script may be active for months or years even if you set time limit to one day.
up
15
Anonymous
15 years ago
use the spiritual-coder's code below with exreme caution and do not use it unless you are an advanced user.

first of all, such a code with no bypass point can cause infinite loops and ghost threads in server. there must be a trick to break out the loop.

i.e. you can use if (file_exists(dirname(__FILE__)."stop.txt")) break; in the loop so if you create "stop.txt", she script will stop execution.

also if you use set_time_limit(86400); instead of set_time_limit(0); your script will stop after one day.
up
3
Micke
9 years ago
It seems that this function does not work for IIS servers.

A detailed description can be found on the PHP Bug Tracking System:
https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=60586#1378935714
up
-26
Charlie Brown
9 years ago
If running a long process and the browser often close the connection, then use this function.
up
-27
plamen at pulsator dot com
23 years ago
The script should output something to the browser in order to abort. If there is no output the script keeps on running.
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