Edit report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=24797&edit=1

 ID:                 24797
 Comment by:         sushantahirrao at gmail dot com
 Reported by:        spagmoid at yahoo dot com
 Summary:            feature request: way to close connection with
                     client?
 Status:             Not a bug
 Type:               Feature/Change Request
 Package:            Feature/Change Request
 Operating System:   WinXP
 PHP Version:        4.3.2
 Block user comment: N
 Private report:     N

 New Comment:

Hello,
I am facing the same issue.
Following is the scenario,
1. User opens edit profile page
2. User puts an image file for uploading
3. User cancels request before any response from the server
4. Image file keeps being uploaded in the background even if the connection is 
closed


Expected Result:
Image file should not be uploaded if client closes the connection


Actual Result:
User is still able to see newly uploaded pic even if he had closed connection 
with the server.


Previous Comments:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[2011-10-22 11:49:48] lucb1e at hotmail dot com

I would like to see this feature too, currently you'd need a very cumbersome 
way to do this (as far as I know at least). This example is about an uploading 
script, which also synchronises with other servers immediately (so no cronjob 
which would otherwise do the job).

The user opens the uploading page, and gets an upload form together with an 
invisible iframe. This iframe is a php script that opens a listening socket and 
saves in a database table which port it is on (together with the client's IP 
or, if available, session ID). This iframe-script also sets ignore_user_abort.
When the user uploads a file, the processing script will do the following:
- Put the file somewhere and generate a download link;
- Echo the downloadlink to the user;
- ob_flush in the hope that the browser is smart enough to display the page 
already;
- Lookup the listening socket for this client in the database;
- Put the filename through to the iframe-script-which-has-listening-socket;
- die().

The 'iframe-script' then knows where the file is located which was just 
uploaded, and without the user waiting for it, it can synchronise it with other 
servers - or do whatever it would like to do.


This technique would theoratically work allright, but has a number of problems:
- Many webhosts do not support sockets at all;
- Listening sockets have even worse support as normal (client) sockets;
- Not all hosts allow you to set a custom maximum_execution_time, which is 
needed to prevent the iframe-script from killing itself;
- I don't expect all hosts to support ignore_user_abort, though I didn't look 
into that yet;
- It is unnessesarily complex compared to how easy it could be done with a 
kill_client_connection() function.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
[2004-06-07 15:18:13] john_ramsden at sagitta-ps dot com

> Closing the connection itself from PHP is of course
> impossible, but if the remote client decides to close
> the connection then you can allow PHP to continue
> executing.

I have the same requirement as Spagmoid's, albeit for a different reason:

In my case it's a PHP script called by an SQL trigger - The script has to read 
the updated records (to replicate them in another database); but the updated 
records aren't available until the trigger completes, and the trigger can't 
complete until the PHP script disconnects! DUH!

Like Spagmoid's, my script obviously wouldn't try to send data after the 
disconnect, as this doesn't make sense.

I must say, the PHP developers seem a bit dogmatic about this issue. Why should 
closing the connection from PHP be "of course impossible"? What is to stop PHP 
having some interface to tell Apache to do that without terminating the script 
itself?

I realize there's a simple workaround: the script can spawn an autonomous 
background process to do "post processing". But I'm not aware of a portable PHP 
call to do this; so for a platform-independent app, it would be lot cleaner if 
"early disconnects", followed by post-processing, could be done in a single PHP 
script.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
[2004-03-25 14:18:50] php at digdug dot cx

I am looking for the same feature.

Here is the scenario: A user submits a form into script.php. The script needs 
to do two things:

1) Tell the user that the submission has been accepted. (It always is.)
2) Do some background processing on the submission and flag it if necessary. 
This takes up to half a minute, so I don't want to make the user wait for it to 
finish.

So here is what I am trying to do:
<? insert_submission_into_database($submission); ?>
<html><body>
<? echo("submission accepted"); ?>
</html></body>
<?
   close_connection_to_browser(); // currently not possible
   if (submission_bad()) flag_submission();
   // no further info is sent to the browser
?>

------------------------------------------------------------------------
[2003-07-26 19:24:35] ras...@php.net

Sara already answered your request by pointing you at the connection handling 
chapter in the manual.  You are asking for a way to keep executing your script 
after the connection has been closed.  Closing the connection itself from PHP 
is of course impossible, but if the remote client decides to close the 
connection then you can allow PHP to continue executing.

Please stop re-opening this.  

------------------------------------------------------------------------
[2003-07-26 18:42:42] spagmoid at yahoo dot com

I DO NOT WANT TO SEND DATA TO THE CLIENT AFTER THE CONNECTION IS CLOSED.  
NOWHERE DID I SAY THAT.  That is what you people keep trying to tell me to do.  
I don't want to do that.  I never wanted to do that.  I will never want to do 
that.  That is ridiculous.

"The only time PHP can continue executing after the data stream has closed is 
when the browser closes the connection itself."

I would be more inclined to believe this if you had understood any of the 
question.

"The only signal PHP can send to the webserver is "I'm done executing." It 
sends this "signal" by terminating."

There may be another way to send this signal, but I doubt if either of you are 
in a position to tell me.

"explaining your question in detail and making an attempt at civility by not 
attacking those who take the time to respond."

It was in detail.  "A way to close the connection with the client, while 
keeping the script running?"  That's it, period.  It's not a complicated issue.

Sending a form letter that doesn't even match the question is not "taking the 
time to respond".

------------------------------------------------------------------------


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the rest of the comments, please view the bug report online at

    https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=24797


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