Took quite some time to figure out the line I am going to post next. If you want to execute a command in the background without having the script waiting for the result, you can do the following:
<?php
passthru("/usr/bin/php /path/to/script.php ".$argv_parameter." >> /path/to/log_file.log 2>&1 &");
?>
There are a few thing that are important here.
First of all: put the full path to the php binary, because this command will run under the apache user, and you will probably not have command alias like php set in that user.
Seccond: Note 2 things at the end of the command string: the '2>&1' and the '&'. The '2>&1' is for redirecting errors to the standard IO. And the most important thing is the '&' at the end of the command string, which tells the terminal not to wait for a response.
Third: Make sure you have 777 permissions on the 'log_file.log' file
Enojy!
