Question

I am trying to execute a basic script on my server to automatically run a PHP script every 45 seconds through Python:

import os
import time

while(1):                                              
    os.spawnl(os.P_NOWAIT, "twitter_clean.php")
    print "checked twitter"
    time.sleep(45)

The PHP is checking twitter, processing some values and adding them to a DB. The script seems to loop fine, but doesn’t seem to be calling/executing the PHP…is os.spawnl(os.P_NOWAIT, "twitter_clean.php") the right command?

Also, once I execute the Python through terminal, will it keep running if I close my SSH session with the server?

Answer 1

You should call PHP-Cli passing that file as parameter

import os
import time

while(1):                                              
    os.spawnl(os.P_NOWAIT, "/path/to/php-cli twitter_clean.php")
    print "checked twitter"
    time.sleep(45)

And to keep it running, try to make it an Daemon: How do you create a daemon in Python?