PHP 8.4.0 RC4 available for testing

time_sleep_until

(PHP 5 >= 5.1.0, PHP 7, PHP 8)

time_sleep_until Make the script sleep until the specified time

Description

time_sleep_until(float $timestamp): bool

Makes the script sleep until the specified timestamp.

Parameters

timestamp

The timestamp when the script should wake.

Return Values

Returns true on success or false on failure.

Errors/Exceptions

If the specified timestamp is in the past, this function will generate a E_WARNING.

Examples

Example #1 A time_sleep_until() example

<?php

//returns false and generates a warning
var_dump(time_sleep_until(time()-1));

// may only work on faster computers, will sleep up to 0.2 seconds
var_dump(time_sleep_until(microtime(true)+0.2));

?>

Notes

Note: All signals will be delivered after the script wakes up.

See Also

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User Contributed Notes 3 notes

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0
purdue at nc dot rr dot com
13 years ago
At least on my Windows machine, the time_sleep_until function appears to calculate the number of microseconds between now and the sleep-until timestamp, and it appears to use unsigned 32-bit math in this calculation. This roundoff leads to a maximum sleep time of just under 4295 seconds (1 hour, 11 minutes, 35 seconds). To get longer sleep times, while still using time_sleep_until to minimize processor overhead, the following loop may be some help to you:

<?php

$sleepuntil
= strtotime("tuesday 3pm");

while (
time() < $sleepuntil)
time_sleep_until($sleepuntil);

// proceed with dated processing

?>

Of course, one could use something like "cron" instead, to avoid the script doing the extended sleep. Also note that time_nanosleep appears to do similar math, but it is somewhat more intuitive that the seconds parameter has an upper limit on what it can be. Still, both functions might report a warning when waking up prematurely due to roundoff.
up
-1
rowan dot collins at cwtdigital dot com
12 years ago
Not realising that this function existed, I wrote something similar, but it has the additional facility to specify a minimum pause even if the target time has already been reached, for instance in a processor-intensive loop.

It's in seconds rather than microseconds (it's intended for heavy-duty CLI scripts), but that could easily be changed by using microtime(true) and usleep if greater granularity was required.

<?php
/**
* Pause processing until the specified time, to avoid hammering a DB or service
*
* @param int $target_time Timestamp
* @param int $min_sleep Always sleep for a minimum number of seconds,
* even if the target timestamp has already passed.
* Default 0, meaning only sleep until the target timestamp is reached.
*
* @example <code>
while ( ! $finished )
{
$minimum_start_of_next_loop = time() + $min_secs_per_loop;

# DO STUFF THAT MAY OR MAY NOT TAKE VERY LONG

sleep_until( $minimum_start_of_next_loop, $min_pause_between_loops );
}
</code>
*/
function sleep_until($target_time, $min_sleep = 0)
{
$time_now = time();

$time_to_target = $target_time - $time_now;

// If we've already reached the target time, that's fine
if ( $time_to_target <= $min_sleep )
{
// If required, sleep for a bit anyway
sleep( $min_sleep );
}
else
{
// Sleep for the number of seconds until the target time
sleep( $time_to_target );
}
}
?>
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-2
divinity76 at gmail dot com
5 years ago
if you for some reason need a constant-time implementation of realpath(), try

<?php

function realpath_constant_time(string $path, float $target_seconds, bool &$constant_time_success = null){
$start_time=microtime(true);
$ret=realpath($path);
$constant_time_success = @time_sleep_until($start_time+$target_seconds);
return
$ret;
}
?>

for example, a realtime that always uses exactly 1 millisecond (should be more than enough for SSD-based servers, perhaps rotating harddrive based servers may need something closer to 10 milliseconds, i don't know):

<?php
realpath_constant_time
("/path/to/../to/file.txt",0.001,$constant_time_success);
?>

and you can use $constant_time_success to see if you needed more time (and thus failed to do realpath() in constant-time), or if you succeeded.
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