Date: 10/09/05 (Web Development)    Keywords: php, web, hosting

Maybe this is a counterpart to all the "where can I find a good web host?" questions that are continually asked around here. I don't need a web host; I run my own server. But I'm starting on developing an application that will be doing some long-duration socket communications, and the target audience includes people with the standard $9.95/month-or-cheaper kind of hosting plans.

Do these sorts of hosts usually have anything running to automatically kill any long-running processes? I need to keep a socket connection up for anywhere from 5 to 60 minutes or so, and if the average hosting provider has a setup that auto-reaps any user's processes after 30 seconds, it's going to be a real problem.

So, can anyone who has a standard web-hosting account tell me: what happens if you have a process that wants to run for longer than a minute or two? I don't mean a busy-loop; it won't be chowing up huge numbers of CPU cycles or driving the load rating through the roof. But it will be sitting there, holding a socket open and maintaining asynchronous communication, for a fairly long time. Does anyone know what your hosting provider would do with that?

Also, since the development language for this is likely to be PHP: what PHP libraries does your web hosting provider include? I'm particularly interested in whether they include the --enable-sockets and/or --enable-pcntl options, and the associated Sockets and Process Control functions. (I realize the latter isn't available on Windows platforms. If your web host is on Windows, that's information I can use, too.)

Source: http://www.livejournal.com/community/webdev/252501.html