How to abort infinite loop on server?

Question

While converting cvs files to mySQL records ON my server, a fault in the source file put a "while" loop into infinite loop. The error file suddenly jumped to 1k, 5k, 20k, 100k, mb... Good show!

I deleted the script... but the copy in memory was still running, and the error file still growing...

Deleted the error file, it was reborn in seconds: the script was still running. I had to delete nearly everything on the site for it to stop.

Is there a way to send a command to a server (Apache, Linux, LAMP) to stop the execution of a program/script (ie using direct command from FTPexplorer) ?

(Not urgent: happened in the past. Just want to know!)

Answer 1

Restart apache

Answer 2

If you have a web-service, they could do this for you.  I like

http://www.hostgator.com/

because they are always there for me 24/7 and it doesn't cost very much and there are many features and valuable support for a low fee.

Use affiliate code, "kaydell.com" and get a free 45-day trial and if you keep the service, you'll get a $25.00 rebate.

If you have your own web-server 200 KM away from you, next time you could do remote control with VNC.  I don't know what you can do now.