Execute bash script inside PHP

creatorrr · 11-19-2007, 11:56 PM

Hi All,

I want to be able to display the content of text file on website. For example, to see the output of the command "cat /somedir/somefile" on the webpage.

Regards

j-ray · 11-20-2007, 01:55 AM

$text=`/bin/cat /somedir/somefile`;
echo $text;

"`" it is a backtick!

jlinkels · 11-20-2007, 05:13 AM

j-ray: that is pure bash, I don't know if that works.

creatorrr: check the exec command in PHP. there is an optional parameter which let you collect all the output of your bash command in an array.

so:

PHP Code:



exec ("/bin/cat myfile.txt", &$output);

gives you the contents of the text file in the array $output.

jlinkels

Guttorm · 11-20-2007, 05:47 AM

Hi

If all you want to do is read a file and display it, the readfile function is better, since the server doesn't have to start a shell on every page hit.

j-ray · 11-20-2007, 06:10 AM

as far as i know the backticks operator works without invoking a shell but of course the readfile function could be used as well.
exec, passthru and backticks are functions to invoke/execute other scripts and programs so one has to be careful with dynamically posted commands here.

creatorrr · 11-20-2007, 04:38 PM

Thanks guys, all sugestions above kind of worked.

$text=`/bin/cat /somedir/somefile`;
echo $text;

and

readfile

gives me the text file unformatted, sort of cannot detect end of line, and exec ("/bin/cat myfile.txt", &$output); gives me an array. I am sure i am close to solution here, will try to manipulate the output, or printout the array and see how its going...

Thanks again

creatorrr · 11-20-2007, 06:07 PM

Guys could you please help me with this one, it must be something very simple but i am failing to fix to: Whatever i tried from the above mentioned solutions i am getting this output:

hello world hello world2

instead of

hello world
hello world2

Thank You

chrism01 · 11-20-2007, 06:19 PM

If you need to ensure you cvt \n to <br> or <p>, try good old fopen/fread/fclose set and do your own char conversions.

jlinkels · 11-20-2007, 08:14 PM

OK, you get an array named $output.

PHP Code:



foreach ($output as $line){ 
  echo "$line <br>"; 
}

The code is untested as I write it, This is and excerpt from my real code:

PHP Code:



        $s_exec = LOAD_SCMASTER . " $sched_file $db_name"; 
        echo "exec string: $s_exec <br>"; 
        exec ($s_exec, &$a_log); 
                $err =0; 
                foreach ($a_log as $log){ 
                        echo $log. "<br>"; 
                        if (strpos($log, "rror") > 0){ 
                                $err=1; 
                        } 
                } 
                ?>

The "problem" here (not a real problem, just straightforwardness) is that in bash CRLF translates to a new line on your screen, while in HTML you need a <br> tag to accomplish the same.

The backtick or read method work as well, you only must put some effort in translating CRLF (or just CR in the Linux world, or was it LF?) into <br>. It is the old tradeoff between quick coding and efficient code.

jlinkels

ghostdog74 · 11-20-2007, 08:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by creatorrr

readfile

gives me the text file unformatted,

use fread to read line by line, then format as you wished

Code:

$f=fopen("filename","r");
while ( !feof($f) )
{
  $line=fread($f);
  echo "$line<br>";
}

graemef · 11-20-2007, 09:15 PM

There is a php function that converts new lines to html breaks, I think that it is called nl2br()

creatorrr · 11-21-2007, 04:32 PM

Thanks Guys,

Tried all of them, all works, the simplest solution seems to be nl2br().

Thanks for you help