trying to create php persistant web based file downloader?

Question

I'm trying to let user download file (~2GB) available with public url on to my server space available for user. Here are my two questions.

Q1: how to keep running a task initiated by user even after user closing the browser?

Q2: how to catch already running task status and show to user?

Below is my use case description.

Requirement:

• User Login -> request a file to download from public url -> close browser
• user login -> view current running downloads status + if downloads complete, let user download file to his local computer.

What's done: using curl able to download to web server and if user not closed browser, everything is good. unable to continue process if user closes browser.

Restrictions:

• don't want to use back-end database.
• should be persistent

Server: php + apache .2 + libcurl + ubuntu 12.10

let me know if it makes more sense to use any other technology / environment.

Answer 1

To keep the script running, even when the browser is closed, give this a try:

ignore_user_abort(true);

This should let the script continue even if the user disconnects (closes browser).

Source: http://php.net/manual/en/function.ignore-user-abort.php