Unix commands from php

bobo

I'm trying to move files using the shell_exec function. I can use it with "ls" to display files, but if I try to move/delete/copy files it doesnt work, and doesnt return anything.

I guess this is to do with permissions, so how can I set it up to allow these commands?

The application is for the admin only, so security is not a problem.

TruckStuff

The application is for the admin only, so security is not a problem.

Famous last words....:rolleyes:

Anyways, you need to make sure that the user your web server runs as as write permission on the target directory. Its been my experience though that if this is a permission problem, PHP will throw a notice. Make sure you have your error settings low enough to show these.

bobo

ok thanks mate.

Although if its a problem to get write permission for the user of the web server, what other options do I have to move files with php? Would be to call a shell script that moves a file be a possible work around? (I don't know a whole lot about unix, and this isnt on my own server.)

jlarson

Well, if you start a shell script from php it will be executed under the same user that the webserver is running under. And that user obviously doesn't have read-write permissions in your directory. If you really aren't concerned about security problems you can change the permissions on the directory to allow anyone read-write access:

chmod 777 directoryname

This is, of course, highly undesirable as your data would be completely unprotected from malicious users.

If you don't have shell access you may be able to issue this command via ftp.

In the end, the best way to deal with this is just as TruckStuff said. Give the user that the webserver runs under write permissions to the directory. Ask the server admin to do this for you.

bobo

Thanks...