exec in PHP not working

Question

I want to execute a command in ubuntu terminal. When I directly run the command in terminal, it runs without any problem. But What I actually want to do is to execute this command via PHP.

chdir('/home/thilini/FYP/testone/bin/');    
exec('./mindtct input_folder/filename output_folder/filename');

The php code I wrote is shown above. I am using ubuntu 10.10 and the LAMP configuration. chdir is working fine and I have successfully moved from /var/www/ to /home/thilini/FYP/testone/bin/ (where I have the executable mindtct). But exec is not working. (mindtct is an executable which convert the file in the input folder to another format and store it in the output_folder under the given name). What am I doing wrong?

Check if ./mindtct is marked as executable (ls -l /home/thilini/FYP/testone/bin/mindtct). — Elon Than
– Elon Than, Commented Sep 23, 2013 at 6:19
It is marked as an executable. Read, write, execute privileges are given to all users on mindtct. — Les_Salantes
– Les_Salantes, Commented Sep 23, 2013 at 6:48

Les_Salantes · Accepted Answer · 2013-09-30 13:09:43Z

1

The problem was an issue in the path. A forward slash was missing.

answered Sep 30, 2013 at 13:09

Les_Salantes

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user987654321 · Accepted Answer · 2013-09-23 06:18:01Z

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If you're running below php 5.4,check "safe_mode" in your ini file.

http://www.php.net/manual/en/features.safe-mode.functions.php

answered Sep 23, 2013 at 6:18

user987654321

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3 Comments

Les_Salantes Over a year ago

Safe mode is turned off.

Les_Salantes Over a year ago

Read, write, execute privileges are given to all users.

user987654321 Over a year ago

This may not be the best comment, but since the binary permissions are executable for all and you are not getting any error have you ensure that the arguments to the binary are valid and have valid permissions?

Andrius Naruševičius · Accepted Answer · 2013-09-23 06:19:57Z

0

You probably want

exec('./mindtct input_folder/filename output_folder/filename');

Maybe you should set error_reporting(-1) in your script so you get some errors

edited Sep 23, 2013 at 6:19

Andrius Naruševičius

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answered Sep 23, 2013 at 6:01

Jonas Liljestrand

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3 Comments

Les_Salantes Over a year ago

Where should I set error_report because I have not written any script?

Jonas Liljestrand Over a year ago

in the top of your php file, in which you are making your exec. php.net/manual/en/function.error-reporting.php

Jonas Liljestrand Over a year ago

Long time ago I was using PHP but this should work for setting error reporting stackoverflow.com/questions/9729000/… Have you also tested to fill in the absolute path to mindtct

luminol · Accepted Answer · 2018-03-23 05:25:12Z

0

You want to use shell_exec(), not exec().

shell_exec() executes a command in the terminal, whereas exec() opens an application.

$results = shell_exec('./mindtct input_folder/filename output_folder/filename');
print_r($results);

This will execute the command, store it in results, and then print_r the results in array format.

http://php.net/manual/en/function.exec.php
http://php.net/manual/en/function.shell-exec.php

answered Mar 23, 2018 at 5:25

luminol

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