Run php script from the command line

[Yah]

Hi All,
I would like to run a php script from the command line or as a scheduled task. The script downloads and unrar files in a folder. I installed php-cli. Running "php script.php" from the command line didn't work. I changed to "php-cli script.php" and it worked, but after script launched R700 memory used by the script didn't get released. I had about 80MB used before and 210MB after. Any suggestion how that can be improved?
Thanks

 

[kevinlekiller]

Post the script, it would help.

 

[Yah]

I added a command to cleanup cache after execution and that looks brings memory to normal state

#!/bin/sh
php-cli /opt/usr/scripts/update.php
sync; echo 1 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches

 

[john9527]

Normal state is what you had before....the memory will be freed/used when another process requires it. If you read the Linux docs, drop_caches should only be used for testing purposes.

 

[Yah]

Thanks for your comment. If I have just about 20M free memory after script execution, do you suggest to enable swap file. It'll be on a USB flash, not sure how fast it is in writing.

 

[ColinTaylor]

Personally, I wouldn't recommend creating a swap file unless you are experiencing "out of memory" errors. Basically, don't try to fix a problem that doesn't exist.

 

[john9527]

Thanks for your comment. If I have just about 20M free memory after script execution, do you suggest to enable swap file. It'll be on a USB flash, not sure how fast it is in writing.

I tend to agree with ColinTaylor. Given your description of the app, I doubt it would actually use/need a swap file. The only time I've seen feedback that a swap file was actually used was for people running a torrent application on the router and really beating on it with multiple torrents.

That being said, if you would like to experiment, it's not hard to set up a swap file. I'd put it on a USB3 stick for the fastest possible performance. I set one up (mostly for testing) and try as I might, I've never seen it being used. Linux memory management is actually pretty good.