How to make PHP and C/C++ interact with each other

Question

I have the usual PHP and MYSQL server running but I want to perform some CPU intensive computations. Therefore I wish to run a C program to handle that part.

Is it possible to exchange data between a PHP and a C/C++ program on the server itself?

Regards PP

Answer 1

It's possible and you have multiple ways to achieve that.

• write an extension (as it was already suggested)
• call your C program with 'exec()'
• use Gearman
• run C program as a service and communicate with it via pipe or a socket

From the above I would choose an extension or Gearman.

Answer 2

Why not write a C++ program and then use popen to fetch the results when it is executed.