using exec() and getting output

I want to be able to execute UNIX commands from a website in PHP and get the output back., I have tried using exec() (I hope that actually exists ) but I get nothing back. Is this possible to do? And if so what am I doing wrong?

[Ilya020]

well, have you tried asking maxim?


That might help...



Ilya

[sde]

weird, i thought i replied to this thread last night, but maybe i was just thinking about it.

it would help to figure out what type of script you want to execute. most likely the answer is a big no.. that you can't send variables back to your php script after executing some other script.

i'm sure there are ways to do it though , .. for example.. make the script that you are executing create a text file with the output it generates... then you can use php to grab each line of that text file into an array.

PHP Code:

exec(somescript.sh);
$array=file("/path/to/txt/file.txt");

foreach($array as $each){
  echo $each . "<br>\n";
}
?> 


you might have to execute the script and read the text file in 2 different php pages because i don't know if your script would be done executing before php tried to read the txt file. this is why i wish php had some sort of timer function built in.

also, .. instead of just having your script create a file, make sure it erases the file first some how .. or you might get bad data.

have fun =)

Thanks, to bad, would be a good alternative when on my parents computer and to lazy to open up PuTTy

[sde]

too lazy to open putty!!! you make me laugh.

/me clicks putty icon in quick-launch once, .. then double clicks my server profile.

/me thinks .. "wow, that was quicker than opening internet explorer and typing in a url"

/me to lazy to click SSH button and enter password

/me also to lazy sometimes to walk 50 feet, do iptables -F, then walk back and SSH in

[Ilya020]

/me thinks ...losers...




Ilya

sde, ok, I made a file in /home/vlad called asd and did chmod 777 on it, then I made a script to rm -rf it and when i did exec it didn't work O_O This is going to be along night...

/me looks at php.net and docs for exec, after 10 seconds slaps head and notices these lines:

shell_exec -- Execute command via shell and return complete output as string
system -- Execute an external program and display output

DOH!

/me slaps head.

system("ls");
works
system("ls --color -F");
works (although it is unreadable because it returns characters that only the shell understands, or unless you are addicted to bash)
but
system("rm -rf /home/vlad/lll");
does not workand I don't know why .
the user is nobody and I have no idea why they can't rm it. I made the file owned by them and they still can't rm it. I don't know why....


EDIT: I have put a file called /www/htdocs/lll and have chmod 777 it and chown nobody it but still they can't rm -rf it...

[Ilya020]

1. try chown nobody:nobody 777 asd
2. you can just do rm for files....duh!

Ilya

1.)No chown nobody:nobody asd;chmod 777 asd; and the group doesn't matter.... It wouldn't make a difference.
2.)rm -rf makes me feel powerful

[sde]

so are you saying it worked? and you got output?

[Ilya020]

what output would you get from rm -fr foo?

"file removed"?:p


Ilya

[sde]

"file foo does not exist"

Originally posted by sde
"file foo does not exist"

no, no output at all, AND the file exists... .

[sde]

oh geesh .. why do i even post. illya was asking what type of output that command could produce.

of course there is no output if the file exists. if it did not exist, you would probably get output of some kind at least in the terminal. that is what i was referring too.