PHP exec and grep question

[jrhitokiri]

Hello!

I have tried using this line of code:

$output = array();
exec('grep "some_keyword" some_file.txt',$output);
echo "<pre>";print_r($output);echo "</pre>";

Upon looking for a keyword that I was sure was in the file, the output was:

Array
(
    [0] =>     
    [1] =>   
)

Otherwise if the keyword was not in the file, it was:

Array
(
)

Any suggestions on how do I fix this and why this is so?

Regards.

John

[rch1231]

2 things:
You may have to give the full path for grep which you can find by running
which grep
from a shell prompt and second what happens when you run the command from the command line?

[jrhitokiri]

2 things:
You may have to give the full path for grep which you can find by running
which grep
from a shell prompt and second what happens when you run the command from the command line?

full path didn't help

pasting it into command line, it functions normally and outputs the 2 lines (as mentioned in my orig post)

Any other suggestions?

[pritaeas]

Are you sure that it can find the txt file (did you try a full path for that too) ? PHP's current path can be different than the one on your console.

[jrhitokiri]

Are you sure that it can find the txt file (did you try a full path for that too) ? PHP's current path can be different than the one on your console.

Yep, fill path for both the grep command and the text file.

[smantscheff]

Also have a look at the preg functions of PHP which might be much easier to handle than the external grep.

[jrhitokiri]

Also have a look at the preg functions of PHP which might be much easier to handle than the external grep.

The thing is, I'm searching a 1GB file and I fear that the preg is significantly slower than the grep external function. :<