issuing things to shell and forgetting about it in php
<p>how do you issue commands to the shell and then forget it's output and such? for example:</p>

<pre><code>&lt;?php
echo `sleep 2;echo hi`;
echo "foo";
?&gt;
</code></pre>

<p>the result for this is hifoo. i would want a result that gives me foohi. why? i want the command issued to the shell simply issued and forgotten, i am confused about why PHP will wait for the result. is such a result possible?</p>

<p>(the idea behind this is setting up the correct number of selenium grid RC instances programatically. currently, it will stop after the first process is opened)</p>
