Executing Scripts from PHP?

[cknapp]

I'm writing a webapp for a professor. It is basically a replacement for a csh script he wrote, along with a simple interface that will allow for dealing with input and output files. All the csh script does is automate a bunch of perl scripts.

Anyway, I chose to do it in PHP because it seemed more straightforward than doing it in perl.

So, the problem I'm having is that there is a lot of file creation and deletion, much of which is done within the scripts. When I try testing exec() and shell_exec(), the executed commands don't produce any side effects. I really need these side effects to happen. Is there any way to actually get side effects?

For example

some_php_function("touch foo.out");
echo `ls .`;

produces as output

{a bunch of stuff}
foo.out
{more stuff}

I tried using the perl in php extension, but it isn't compiling, which makes it difficult to actually use :)

Thanks

[blufab]

Are you trying to retrieve the error messages? If so just redirect the stderr to stdout. (using 2>&1)

some_php_function("touch foo.out 2>&1");
echo `ls .`;

[cknapp]

No; I'm trying to get something to happen.

I used touch as an example: When you use touch from a shell, there's no output, but there is a new (blank) file in the directory. When I use exec() or shell_exec(), since touch does not return an output for php to receive, nothing happens. There is not a new file in the directory foo.php is executed from.

The question is: how do I get (as an example) the shell command "touch foo.out" to create a file (as it's supposed to) from within the php environment? I know php has methods for creating new output files, but I'm looking for ways to interact with the OS from within php;

So I guess to be more specific: How can I make the shell do anything besides return a value to php? I haven't been able to get any side effects...

Perhaps perl will be a better language to work in?

[StephenP]

I'm not sure, as I don't really do too much with internal programs, but maybe try passthru() - it returns the binary data return of the function to the browser.

-Stephen

[icorey]

<?php
system("touch foo0");
exec("touch foo1");
shell_exec("touch foo2");
?>

After running that, foo0, foo1, and foo2 are created.

Why are you just echoing ls? And is it possible you don't have the proper permissions?

[cknapp]

Echoing ls was test output, to see if it was there... I don't know why I'm not getting anything out of exec() or shell_exec()... I haven't tried system, however.

Permissions... perhaps...