Can a shell command return an array?

[srenaker]

Is it possible to use passthru() or exec() or shell_exec() to return an array from a shell command? For example:

$my_array = shell_exec($shell_cmd);

So far I've only been able to get shell_exec() to return a string.

Thanks,

Steve

[128kb_com]

Not that I know of, but you should be able to work some trickery depending on what $shell_cmd outputs.

For instance, if $shell_cmd ouputs multiple lines of output you can use shell_exec/COLOR or passthru/COLOR (passthru in conjunction with output buffers) and then
$array = explode("\n" , $output);

What kind of output are you expecting from $shell_cmd?

[Weedpacket]

shell_exec() only returns a string - whatever it was that $shell_cmd had sent to STDOUT.

If you're writing the code that shell_exec() is calling, you could find out what format serialize() uses, and have it emit stuff in that format - then your command could emit arbitrary PHP data structures.