How do I check if a Python script is running in PHP?

Question

I'm trying to check if a Python script is running in PHP, but I've no idea how. I've tried using a database: I added an entry "request" with value response "0" and the Python script had to change that value to "1" if it was online. I couldn't get that to work so now I'm asking here

Answer 1

Assuming tasklist is available, this could potentially work: (this example using Windows 10)

I first launched a test2.py script:

The test2.py code is simply running:

from time import sleep

while True:
    print('running');
    sleep(3);

Then using this bit of php code: (I named procCheck.php )

<?php
$tasks = [];

// Use -v to include the window title info:
exec('tasklist -v 2>NUL', $tasks);

// Check the tasks array for the script we seek:
$entry = preg_grep('/(test2\.py)/', $tasks);

if (!empty($entry)) {
    foreach($entry as $value) {
        echo $value . PHP_EOL;
    }
}

Gives this output: (one wrapped line in my console window)

Know that if there are other windows open with same script name within the window title will be found too. For example, I had the test2.py open as the active tab in Notepad++ and that entry was found as well:

Changing to some other file tab in Notepad++ only found the first entry.