Hi,
I have a bash script i wrote to do a few things (copy some files, sed some text files, and execute a few apps (ffmpeg, cinelerra).
I also have a php page that runs this bash script through exec();

If i run via the shell (su'd as apache) as: php myphppage.php it executes correctly, copying the files, sed replacements, executes ffmpeg and cinelerra as expected.
When i hit myphppage.php via a browser, it executes, kicks off the .sh script, does the copies, runs ffmpeg, but when it runs cinelerra, it goes nuts, basically resulting in not running correctly, and creating a bunch (10ish) files in the working directory with names like ?, ?a`, p!2, etc.

What i don't understand is what is different from being on ssh as user apache and running php mypage.php vs hitting mypage.php with a browser (since apache runs as user apache).

I'll be happy to provide whatever additional information or files that may be helpful in solving this.

Thanks
-jim

Isn't cinelerra an X graphics application?
If so...
When run from an HTTP server, there will be no X server with which to attach, unless you specify one either by setting $DISPLAY or giving the application a -display commandline argument. This would also require the X server to be configured to accept connections from cinelerra with the accordant host/user permissions. Alternatively, you could run it using a virtual X server, such as Xvfb.
Typically, the environment variables passed along by an HTTP server are quite different from those that spring to life when you log in using a shell. You might look at what the requirements might be, there, too.


---- rod.

It's an X app, but i'm just trying to kick off the batch rendering mode (cinelerra -r myfile.rc). As mentioned it works from the shell logged in as apache, and running via php, just not when http tries to execute the php/script.

So it has something to do with the difference, the environment, etc, just not sure where to start even looking.

-jim

Can you check the environment variables by modifying the script to run the env command with output directed to a file and then run it in both situations and look for significant differences?

This would do it:

The big difference is that a login invokes a number of scripts in the shell, which set up all sorts of things for interactive work. Especially, environment variables, like $PATH, maybe $LD_LIBRARY_PATH, etc. The problem may be as simple as setting $PATH appropriately, or when your script tries to launch the various applications, it should spell out a full, specific filespec to launch.
--- rod.