php run shell command code example

Example 1: exec output php

$output = exec('ls');

Example 2: php exec at ubuntu

exec('echo "php /path/to/script.php" | at 09:00am Jul 15')

Example 3: how to execute cmd command in php

I'm not sure what shell you are going to get with this function, but you can find out like this:

<?php
$cmd = 'set';
echo "<pre>".shell_exec($cmd)."</pre>";
?>

On my FreeBSD 6.1 box I get this:

USER=root
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/lib/apache2:
HOME=/root
PS1='$ '
OPTIND=1
PS2='> '
LOGNAME=root
PPID=88057
PATH=/etc:/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin
SHELL=/bin/sh
IFS='     
'

Very interesting.  Note that the PATH may not be as complete as you need.  I wanted to run Ghostscript via ImageMagik's "convert" and ended up having to add my path before running the command:

<?php
$cmd = 'export PATH="/usr/local/bin/"; convert -scale 25%x25% file1.pdf[0] file2.png 2>&1';
echo "<pre>".shell_exec($cmd)."</pre>";
?>

ALSO, note that shell_exec() does not grab STDERR, so use "2>&1" to redirect it to STDOUT and catch it.

Example 4: php run command line

shell_exec('ls');
// or
exec('ls');

Example 5: php run command terminal

php -r "Print \"Hello, World!\";"

Example 6: run shell script from php file

echo shell_exec('sh /home/scripts/fix-perm.sh');