Multitron: High-Performance PHP Task Orchestrator

Multitron is a powerful, high-performance PHP task orchestrator designed to simplify parallel processing, concurrency, and automation in PHP applications. Quickly execute complex tasks asynchronously, maximizing the efficiency and scalability of your workflows.

Ideal for Symfony Console apps, CI/CD pipelines, batch processing, and heavy PHP workloads.

---

---

Table of Contents

• Why Choose Multitron?

• Requirements

• Installation

• Usage

• Basic Example

• Running Tasks

• Central Cache

• Reporting Progress

• Partitioned Tasks

• Accessing CLI Options

• Custom Progress Output

• Contributing

• License

---

Why Choose Multitron?

• 🔄 Efficient Task Dependency Management: Clearly define task dependencies with intuitive declarative syntax.
• ⚡ Optimized Parallel Execution: Automatic CPU core detection for peak performance and resource utilization.
• 🧩 Partitioned Workloads: Easily split large tasks across multiple worker processes.
• 📊 Real-Time Progress & Transparency: Continuous console logging and progress tracking.
• 🗄️ Centralized Cache for Tasks: Inter-process data sharing and communication made simple.
• 🔌 Symfony Console Ready: Effortlessly integrate Multitron into your existing Symfony-based applications.
• 📄 Open Source & MIT Licensed: Completely free to use, adapt, and distribute.

Installation

• Symfony Integration
• Laravel Integration
• Native PHP Integration
• Nette Integration

Usage

Tasks implement the Multitron\Execution\Task interface. Here’s a minimal example task:

use Multitron\Comms\TaskCommunicator;
use Multitron\Execution\Task;

final class HelloTask implements Task
{
public function execute(TaskCommunicator $comm): void
{
$comm->log('Hello from a worker');
}
}

You can register tasks in a command that extends Multitron\Console\TaskCommand:

use Multitron\Console\TaskCommand;
use Multitron\Tree\TaskNode;
use Multitron\Tree\TaskTreeBuilder;
use Symfony\Component\Console\Attribute\AsCommand;

#[AsCommand(name: 'app:tasks')]
final class MyCommand extends TaskCommand
{
/**
* @return TaskNode[]
*/
public function getNodes(TaskTreeBuilder $b): array
{
return [
$cache = $b->group('cache-clear', [
$b->service(ClearCacheTask::class),
$b->service(ClearLogsTask::class),
]),
$b->service(AfterCacheClearTask::class, dependencies: [$cache]),
$first = $b->service(MyFirstTask::class),
$second = $b->service(MySecondTask::class, dependencies: [$first]),
$anotherSecond = $b->service(MyAnotherSecondTask::class, dependencies: [$first]),
$b->partitioned(MyPartitionedTask::class, 4, dependencies: [$second, $cache]),
];
}
}

Register the command in your Symfony Console application and run it. Multitron will execute the tasks respecting dependencies and concurrency.

You can control how many tasks run at once via the -c/--concurrency option:

php bin/console app:tasks -c 8

The library will spawn up to eight worker processes and keep them busy until all tasks finish.

To limit which tasks run, pass a pattern as the first argument. Wildcards work the same as in fnmatch() and you may use % in place of * for convenience:

php bin/console app:tasks cache-* # run only tasks whose ID or tag matches "cache-*"

You can combine multiple patterns by separating them with commas. The filter applies to both task IDs and tags and is an OR pattern.

php bin/console app:tasks "db-%,cache-%,final-%"

You can also tune how often progress updates are rendered using the -u/--update-interval option (in seconds):

php bin/console app:tasks -u 0.5

You may also constrain memory usage with the -m/--memory-limit option:

php bin/console app:tasks -m 512M

You can disable colors with --no-colors and switch off interactive table rendering using --interactive=no. The default --interactive=detect automatically falls back to plain output when run in CI.

Central Cache

Within a task you receive a TaskCommunicator instance that provides simple methods to read and write data shared between tasks:

use Multitron\Comms\TaskCommunicator;

final class MyTask implements Task
{
public function execute(TaskCommunicator $comm): void
{
$comm->cache->write(['foo' => ['bar' => 'baz']]);
$baz = $comm->cache->read(['foo' => ['bar']])->await()['foo']['bar']; // returns "baz"

// Read existing values first, then update
$existing = $comm->cache->read(['stats' => ['hits']])->await();
$hits = $existing['stats']['hits'] ?? 0;
$comm->cache->write(['stats' => ['hits' => $hits + 1]]);
}
}

Reporting Progress

Tasks can update progress counters that Multitron displays while running. Use the ProgressClient provided by the communicator:

final class DownloadTask implements Task
{
public function execute(TaskCommunicator $comm): void
{
$comm->progress->setTotal(100);
for ($i = 0; $i < 100; $i++) {
// ... work
$comm->progress->addDone();
}
}
}

You may also call addOccurrence() or addWarning() to report additional metrics or warnings.

Partitioned Tasks

When a workload can be split into chunks, partitioned tasks run those chunks in parallel. Define a task extending PartitionedTask and specify the number of partitions in the tree:

use Multitron\Tree\Partition\PartitionedTask;

final class BuildReportTask extends PartitionedTask // or implements PartitionedTaskInterface, use PartitionedTaskTrait
{
public function execute(TaskCommunicator $comm): void
{
$comm->log("processing part {$this->partitionIndex} of {$this->partitionCount}");
}
}

$builder->partitioned(BuildReportTask::class, 4);

Accessing CLI Options

Options passed on the command line are forwarded to each task. Retrieve them via TaskCommunicator:

final class ProcessUsersTask implements Task
{
public function execute(TaskCommunicator $comm): void
{
$limit = (int)($comm->getOption('limit') ?? 0);
// ... process with the given $limit
}
}

Call getOptions() to receive the entire array of options if needed.

Custom Progress Output

Multitron renders progress using a ProgressOutputFactory. Replace the default table display or combine outputs with ChainProgressOutputFactory:

use Multitron\Orchestrator\Output\ChainProgressOutputFactory;
use Multitron\Orchestrator\Output\TableOutputFactory;
use Multitron\Bridge\Native\MultitronFactory;

$factory = new MultitronFactory();

$outputFactory = new ChainProgressOutputFactory(
$factory->getProgressOutputFactory(),
new JsonOutputFactory(), // your own class for custom output
);

$factory->setProgressOutputFactory($outputFactory);

Implement the factory to send progress anywhere you like.

---

Troubleshooting

“ext-pcntl is required”

Multitron requires the pcntl extension for process management. Install it:

# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt-get install php-pcntl

# macOS (usually included)
# If missing, use Homebrew PHP
brew install php

Worker processes hang or timeout

• Check the worker timeout setting (default 60s):

$factory->setWorkerTimeout(300.0); // 5 minutes

• Ensure your tasks don’t have infinite loops
• Check for deadlocks in IPC communication

“WorkerCommand not found” error

Make sure you’ve registered the worker command:

// Symfony - register extension in Kernel
$container->registerExtension(new MultitronExtension());

// Laravel - add to bootstrap/providers.php
MultitronServiceProvider::class,

// Native - add to application
$app->add($factory->getWorkerCommand());

Memory limit errors

Adjust the memory limit:

php bin/console app:tasks -m 1G

Or set it in your task command initialization.

Tasks not running in parallel

• Check concurrency setting: php bin/console app:tasks -c 8
• Verify task dependencies aren’t creating a serial execution path
• Ensure you have enough CPU cores available

Progress not updating

• Check the update interval: php bin/console app:tasks -u 0.5
• In CI environments, use --interactive=no for plain output
• Verify you’re calling $comm->progress->addDone() in your tasks

Cache data not persisting between tasks

• Ensure you’re using $comm->cache->write() before read()
• Remember to call ->await() on read promises
• Cache is process-scoped; it doesn’t persist after the command finishes

For more help, check existing GitHub Issues or open a new one.

---

Contribute to Multitron!

Your feedback, issues, and contributions are highly encouraged. Open a GitHub issue or start a pull request to help improve PHP concurrency and task management:

• Create an Issue
• Submit a Pull Request

---

License

Multitron is MIT licensed. See the LICENSE file for full details.