passing value from output of command

mcrumble

I am writing a simple script that contains a form with a textarea, textbox and submit button. I want to write a system command in the textbox, click the submit button and have the output of the command display in the textbox. This is the code I have so far:

<?php
if ($_POST['submit']) {
$output = system($command);
}
?>

<html><head></head>
<title>Run a command and output to a text box</title>
<body>
<form action="<?=$_SERVER['PHP_SELF']?>" method="post">
<textarea name="display" cols=30 rows=15 value="output"></textarea></p>
Command: <input type=text width=40 name="command"></p>
<input type=submit name="submit" value=" Submit ">
</form>
</body></html>

Unfortunately, the output is displayed as text in the html portion of the form. I don't want this. I want to redirect the output to the textarea.

Is this possible? Am I just not that familiar with html or php? Could someone please help?

keith73

Instead of

$output = system($command);

you need to do this:

system($command,$output)

From the manual:

string system ( string command [, int return_var])

system() is just like the C version of the function in that it executes the given command and outputs the result. If a variable is provided as the second argument, then the return status code of the executed command will be written to this variable.

I certainly hope this script is behind a protected area of your server. Don't let this page be viewed by the public, or someone could easily wipe out your server.

keith

mcrumble

Thanks, but that still didn't work. I want $output to be the value for the textarea. All this code does is display it in html format at the top of the screen. And yes, this is a secure site with this server being used only by local engineers. Way to keep up on the security of things. Thanks.

Ultimately, I want buttons to execute certain system commands on a remote server using ssh. This is a test to see if I can get the display in the textarea rather than in html format. The idea is to keep the formatting of the output.