I am using the passthru() function to permit the client changing the servers IP address in browser. But i found that the passthru() could not perform the ifconfig command. I believe it is the problem related to permission, cause when i change to command to ls the file list comes out.

Could anyone tell me how to relax the permission? or are there any other method to achieve the IP changing function by PHP?

Thanks

Changing a servers IP address is not something that you would normally want to do. Once done you would then have problems connecting to the server. However having said that the command is normally restricted to the root user however you can give the rights to the web server by using sudo. But you really need to know what the consequences of such an action would be.

Hi Graemef, thanks 4 your reply.

I am writing a multiple-server-manager in BS strucure. And each server would respond when i send broadcast. It is WLAN works. So changing IP function is a must in my project. And also i want to use more commands like mdadm to config the raid in the future. So if i work this problem out, i will benefit a lot in the further developing.

I tried your advice like this:

$command = "sudo ifconfig";
passthru($command);

Still there is no output in the browser. Because i've no idea where i should put the root pwd, i might be using it wrong. What changes should i make? Thanks a lot

sudo allows another user to run a command as if they were the superuser, but you need to prepare the groundwork beforehand by permitting you web server to run the selected command, check the man page for sudoers it explains it fairly well. With the sudo command you can provide the password in the -p switch.

I just made a big mistake!

I am using ubuntu. i am always logging in the system as the normal user and add sudo before the certain shells. And this time, i run "sudo chmod 640 /etc/sudoers" and found that i cannot use "sudo" anymore because the sudoers is not 440. but i can only change it back to use "sudo". It seems that i am trapped in the dead circle. How can i change the file back?

I've fixed that stupid mistake, and came back to the main issue. Wish i could worked it out soon.