PHP - Executing ffmpeg using exec() and shell_exec() does nothing

Question

I'm trying to convert an audio file in PHP using ffmpeg, I get the audio file via post as a m4a and I want to turn it into mp3. I do the following to do this:

$commandOutput = shell_exec('ffmpeg -i '.$filePath.' -ar 8000 -ab 16000 '.str_replace('m4a', 'mp3', $filePath));

Yet it does nothing, and commandOutput also contains nothing. The file is saved properly but not converted to mp3, when I run the same command in terminal it converts the file properly. Any idea what might be happening?

I'm not 100% certain, but this might be something to do with PHP (or Apache) running in a chroot jail. If it is, you probably won't have the ability to call certain executables or write to certain file paths. — Polynomial
– Polynomial, Commented Apr 27, 2012 at 20:47

Cal · Accepted Answer · 2012-04-27 20:50:20Z

2

Try wrapping commands like this:

exec($cmd." 2>&1", $out, $ret);
if ($ret){
    echo "There was a problem!\n";
    print_r($out);
}else{
    echo "Everything went better than expected!\n";
}

exec() lets you capture all output and get the exit code. Adding 2>&1 makes sure to redirect STDERR to STDOUT so you can see any error messages.

answered Apr 27, 2012 at 20:50

Cal

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3 Comments

8vius Over a year ago

Ok, this revealed the problem I got this output: sh: ffmpeg: command not found

Cal Over a year ago

1) use the full path to ffmpeg: /usr/bin/ffmpeg or whatever

Cal Over a year ago

2) set your PATH ENV variable from php first: putenv("PATH=/usr/local/bin");

Polynomial · Accepted Answer · 2012-04-27 20:51:17Z

1

You could use the ffmpeg-php extension: http://sourceforge.net/projects/ffmpeg-php/

answered Apr 27, 2012 at 20:51

Polynomial

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