README

This project aims to greatly simplify the creation of very lightweight system daemons in PHP, and hide the low-level details after a modern class-based interface.

Daemonizer implements a fast and simple main loop for you, so you don't need to take care of the details. A disadvantage of this is that you must let your class' run() function end from time to time (no infinite loops). Failing to do this will make your daemon unresponsive to external signals (i.e. sigterm)

Daemonizer uses a version of PEAR's System_Daemon internally. Find it here: kvz/system_daemon

A very simple example

Daemon that echoes a string once per second:

class example implements Daemonizer\Daemonizable {
  public function sleep_time() {
    return 1; // In seconds
  }
  
  public function run() {
    echo "Hey there!\n";
  }
}

$daemon = new Daemonizer\Daemonizer('example', '././example/example.pid');
// Add customizations. I.e: $daemon->set_logfn('my_logging_function');
$daemon->run(new example);

Find a sightly more complete example at https://github.com/shankao/Daemonizer/blob/master/example.php

About the PID location parameter

Sadly, using System_Daemon internally has its drawbacks. One of the most visible in Daemonizer is the way that the PID file location has to be indicated:

1. It requires to have at least two backslashes to start. In our example, the first part of "././example/example.pid" is only used to refer to the current folder. This requirement is due to System_Daemon expecting PID's to be system-wide located, like in /var/run (see the two backslashes)
2. It requires that, after the two slashes, comes a folder with the same name as the daemon's name. In the example before, the "example" folder part. The reason is the same: System_Daemon requires to follow a UNIX system-wide protocol for PID file locations.

This problems will be fixed with the depart from System_Daemon in the future

Customization functions

Call them for your Daemonizer object, before the call to run() to change some aspects of the daemon:

set_finishfn(callable $fn)

Set the function to call when the daemon receives a SIGTERM signal

set_restartfn(callable $fn)

Set the function to call when the daemon receives a SIGHUP signal

set_uid(int)

Force the daemon's UID to this one

set_gid(int)

Force the daemon's GID to this one

set_logfn(callable $fn)

Set the function to call for logging

set_loglevel(int)

Set System_Daemon's logging level

Next steps

For next releases, I intend to keep the same functionality, without using System_Daemon internally, as its code has become old and bloated. Given that I intend to keep Daemonizer simple and lightweight, that last part is not good. Also, the PID location quirk is painful for a real-world project.