Unreadable strings in source code?

pieter1970

Hello all,

I just got a couple of php files and i wanted to change the source code. But their seems to be a problem with the source code:
Every string is not readable, for example the string "no errors" is in code:

"\156\157\40\145\162\162\157\162\163"

Anyone knows what these slashes with a number mean and how i can convert them into normal readable text?

Thanks. 🙂

konsu

what editor are you using to read your files? these look like hex representations of characters. btw, this is not related to php ; -)

Kudose

Maybe the author intentionally encoded the file in an attempt to keep people from looking at or editing the source.

mtmosier

That was a pretty lame attempt if so. Those numbers are octal. You can convert it back with something like this.

$file = '<?php
$ne = "\\156\\157\\40\\145\\162\\162\\157\\162\\163";
?>';

echo preg_replace('/\\\\\\\\(\\d+)/e', 'chr(octdec("\\1"))', $file);

Obviously you need to respect the copyright of the author, so do check your license.

robert_w_ark

\156\157\40\145\162\162\157\162\163 = no errors

You can do this by this PHP code:

echo "\156\157\40\145\162\162\157\162\163";

robert_w_ark

Well that didnt work out right...

That should be

echo "\156\157\40\145\162\162\157\162\163";

pieter1970

Originally posted by mtmosier
That was a pretty lame attempt if so. Those numbers are octal. You can convert it back with something like this.
$file = '<?php
$ne = "\\156\\157\\40\\145\\162\\162\\157\\162\\163";
?>';

echo preg_replace('/\\\\\\\\(\\d+)/e', 'chr(octdec("\\1"))', $file);
Obviously you need to respect the copyright of the author, so do check your license. [/B]

Thanks, that makes everything a lot clearer. I've received the code from a friend at work, he saids it's gpl. But i think that's kind of strange cause i always thought that open source code should be readable.
Oh well, with my decoder it's readable. :rolleyes: