Run process with realtime output in PHP

In PHP, you can use the proc_open function to run a process and read its output in real-time. Here is an example of how you can use it:

Example of using proc_open function to run a process and read its output in real-time in PHP

<‌?php

$descriptorspec = [
  0 => ["pipe", "r"], // stdin is a pipe that the child will read from
  1 => ["pipe", "w"], // stdout is a pipe that the child will write to
  2 => ["pipe", "w"], // stderr is a pipe that the child will write to
];

$process = proc_open('echo "Hello World!"', $descriptorspec, $pipes);

if ($process !== false) {
  while ($s = fgets($pipes[1])) {
    print $s;
  }
  while ($e = fgets($pipes[2])) {
    print $e;
  }
  proc_close($process);
}

Try it Yourself »

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This example runs the command echo "Hello World!" and reads its output and error streams in real-time using the fgets function. The output is then printed to the screen. Note that $descriptorspec is an array of descriptor arrays. Each descriptor specifies the pipe type ("r" for read, "w" for write) and the corresponding file descriptor index.