IT Consultant and Contractor - London

For a php script to run on a server in the background after closing ssh connection, it needs to be started the following way:

• nohup (no hung-up) enables the script to keep running after the ssh connction is closed,
• the -q parameter prevents php from outputting any headers that would normally output for a HTTP connection,
• < /dev/nul (the null device) is a workaround as php cli on ubuntu seems to expect some input
• & - the ampersand makes the script in the background