Unable to execute extarnal programs exec(), shell_exec()...

bodhy

Hi all.
I use WinXP with Apache 2 and PHP 4.3.

I'm trying to execute external programs from a PHP script...
And I've made a lot of testings without resuls...

Suposse that I want to execute notepad.exe (for instance)... I tried to do it using a lot of combinations...

exec("C:\WINDOWS\NOTEPAD.EXE");
shell_exec("C:\WINDOWS\NOTEPAD.EXE");
$result = "C:\WINDOWS\NOTEPAD.EXE";

Using an intermediate bat file too...

The case if that If I take look in the "Task Manager" I see the porcesses running there, I mean in the process view there are several instances of "NOTEPAD.EXE" running, but they are "hidden"...

I've readed several ways of solve this but no one of them worked for me...

Any hint will be great great apprettiated.
Best regards from spain...

b:.

HalfaBee

You can't run interactive programs using exec().
They will just sit there and wait for input.

Only run commands that do something.
Like dir rm .

Also you might have problems because the \ needs to be twice in double quoted strings .

"\" == '\'

HalfaBee

bodhy

Thanks HalfaBee.

Yes, I was able to run a "dir" command and retrieve the directory listing when I made tests with shell_exec...

Then, there isn't any way to launch an external application than doesn't need "user input"? There isn't any workaround to this using another function?

I've readed somewhere that this could be done using a BAT file... but didn't worked for me... :-(

This evening I'll do some more testing triying to change the backslashes as you point me, and using a BAT file...

Thanks again.
I you remenber some tip please post it here.
Best regards.

b:.

HalfaBee

You can run some programs that need input by redirecting stdin.

Can't think of any useful examples.

striptags < file.txt

Its just progs that need input that won't work properly.

You tried notepad and it just sat there waiting for you to type something ( which you couldn't ).

HalfaBee