Question

Say my set_time_limit is set to 30 seconds and can’t be changed. I have an email script in php that will run longer than 30 seconds on 1 cron job (I haven’t reached that time mark yet.) What happens on timeout after 30 seconds? Will the script stop then continue?

If not, I would like to record the elapsed time from the beginning of my script’s loop until it reaches 30 seconds and pause the process then continue.

What is a good way to do this?

Update: what I think might work

function email()
{
  sleep(2); //delays script 2 seconds (time to break script on reset)

  foreach ($emails as $email): 
       // send individual emails with different content
       // takes longer than 30 seconds
   enforeach;

   // on 28 seconds
   return email(); //restarts process
}

Answer 1

Suggested approach:

function microtime_float()
{
    list($usec, $sec) = explode(" ", microtime());
    return ((float)$usec + (float)$sec);
}

$time_start = microtime_float();
foreach ($emails as $email): 
   // send individual emails with different content
   // takes longer than 30 seconds

   $time_curr = microtime_float();
   $time = $time_curr - $time_start;
   if($time > 28){ //if time is bigger than 28 seconds (2 seconds less - just in case)
        break;// we will continue processing the rest of the emails - next time cron will call the script
   }
enforeach;