Get return value from a bash script with PHP

Question

How to exectue a shell file with PHP?

I have a file called sync.sh, so how to run the file in php and how to take the response after complete the execution? I think shell_exec() will help to trigger the file but how can I get the response that script is completed the task properly or not?

nsanders · Accepted Answer · 2011-12-30 07:57:09Z

5

Take a look at the exec() function. You can pass in a return_var which will hold the exit code from the shell script.

$out = array();
$status = -1;

exec( '/path/to/sync.sh', $out, $status );

if ( $status != 0 ) {
    // shell script indicated an error return
}

One thing to watch out for is that the script will run with the web server's permissions, not your own as a user.

Also, be sure to heed the doc's security-related warning:

When allowing user-supplied data to be passed to this function, use escapeshellarg() or escapeshellcmd() to ensure that users cannot trick the system into executing arbitrary commands.

edited Dec 30, 2011 at 7:57

answered Dec 30, 2011 at 7:46

nsanders

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3 Comments

Subhojit Mukherjee Over a year ago

This gives me error 126. I think I need administrator privilege to run the command and also my script located at /home/administrator/scripts this path. I think web server is not give the permission to access outside of /var/www folder. is it right?

nsanders Over a year ago

@SubhojitMukherjee Did you set the permissions on your script so that the webserver can run it? (e.g. "chmod o+rx sync.sh"). Does the script work when you run it from your user account?

Ikke Over a year ago

Try sh sync.sh. That doesn't require sync.sh to be executable.

Ikke · Accepted Answer · 2011-12-30 07:47:21Z

3

According to the documentation:

Return Values

The output from the executed command or NULL if an error occurred.

Just get the return value of that function.

$result = shell_exec('sync.sh');

And $result will contain what you want.

answered Dec 30, 2011 at 7:47

Ikke

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3 Comments

Subhojit Mukherjee Over a year ago

The problem is that, my sync file located at /home/administrator/scripts so the command will access the outside www folder?

Ikke Over a year ago

@SubhojitMukherjee It depends on how PHP is setup, but normally, it would be possible. Just give the absolute path to the script.

Paul Allsopp Over a year ago

I know this is old but just had to do this so thought I'd comment here: be aware that if you are running the PHP script as part of a web application, the user will be the user that runs in the web server context, not the same as in the commandline context. So you might log in as a user and test the script and it works, but then as part of a web application it fails, because the web server does not run as the logged in user. To make that work: "sudo -u username /path" where username is the name of the script owner, and path is the full path to the script.

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