PHP system doesn't recognise variable

chaakin

I am trying to make a small script that interfaces with

linux's lftpget. Here is the code:

form.html - Initial form

<html>
<body>
<center><h2>Download from MyFTP Site</h2></center>
<form name="file_form" action="filecall.php">
<table border=0 align=center>
<tr>
<td>Enter Filename:</td><td><input type="text" name="file_name"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan=2 align=center><input type="submit" name="submit" value="Go!"></td>
</tr>
</table>
</form>
</body>
</html>

filecall.php - php file that "should" download the
file specified to the current directory

<?php
$file = $_GET['file_name'];
system('lftpget ftp://myuser:mypass@ftp.some.com/$file');
?>

Need Suggestions. If I replace $file with an actual file name this works fine by accessing the filecall.php script directly. Why is it not recognising my variable???

Chris_Evans

Hi, this may, may not work 🙂:

<?php
$file = $_GET['file_name'];
system('lftpget [url]ftp://myuser.mypass@ftp.some.com/[/url]'.$file);
?>

Thanks,

Chris

Bunkermaster

"$foobar" <--- good
'$foobar' <--- bad

Chris_Evans

I'm interested to know why you say that... I always do it as follows:

$variable = "this la la la ".$foobar." is very good.";

Why do you consider this incorrect?

Bunkermaster

it's not 🙂
It's just that single quote strings will not be evaluated and double quote strings will. I often split my strings in this manner:

$mystring = "quick " . $brown . " fox";

This allows me to:
- use syntax colorization in order to find my variables
- use control+shift to tab between words.

I was refering to the first post in this thread in which a variable is enclosed between single quotes 😛

Chris_Evans

Oh! Misunderstanding, sorry. 🙂 Yeah, I like being able to see the variables too... though I wasn't aware of the rule you just stated... but since I never used it, that's probably why.