Run bash script from php

Question

I want to run a shell script within a php webpage to check some processes running on my system (Ubuntu 12.04). Googleing I've found about shell_exec() but I can't manage to run the script when loading php.

This is the php code I use.

$output = shell_exec('./dirlist.bash');
echo "<pre>$output</pre>";

and the piece of html I get

<pre></pre>

Also tried $output = shell_exec('sudo -u www-data ./dirlist.bash');

dirlist.bash does ls -l (just for testing script and shell_exec)

I think it is not a permission problem. Running directory grants write and execute privileges for all users (I should be careful here).

drwxrwxrwx  4 meteo meteo 4096 mar 11 15:20 RAMS

User www-data has been added to sudoers file in case it was needed

www-data ALL = (meteo) NOPASSWD: /home/meteo/www/RAMS/dirlist.bash

Thanks in advance

Solution

You probably need to chdir to the correct directory before calling the script. This way you can ensure what directory your script is "in" before calling the shell command.

$old_path = getcwd();
chdir('/my/path/');
$output = shell_exec('./script.sh var1 var2');
chdir($old_path);
echo "<pre>$output</pre>";

Comments

[Admin]

Programming questions are off topic here unless they are directly related to administering your system. I suggest you ask on Stack Overflow, but your problem is almost certainly that you are using relative paths (./dirlist_bash). And for the love of all that's fluffy, remove www-data from sudoers!

[Admin]

You are right, I will move to Stack Overflow. And as you ask so kindly I will remove www-data :-)

[Admin]

Hi, now using absolute path it is running fine, thank you very much.

[Admin]

can you post a link to your question on SO here in the comments for others who follow? thanks!

[Admin]

There it is link

[Oli]

This has a disturbing similarity to a block of code on SO. Give credit.