[RESOLVED] How can I find out if a Windows program command exists using PHP?

ppowell

I can do this so easily in Unix:

$msg = exec('whatis convert 2>&1');
echo $msg;

However, in Windows using MS-DOS, I'm utterly lost. I am having to find out if ImageMagick is installed on a system for a function to operate (ImageMagick is required), and since this is a portable web application, you simply can't install ImageMagick everywhere you go!

Therefore I need to know if the system home has ImageMagick or not, and in Unix, I simply do a "whatis convert" and I can tell, but since MS-DOS has no equivalent to "whatis" I can't figure it out, and just running the "convert" command within a recursive function onto thousands of images is just not a good idea.

Help!

Thanx
Phil

konsu

consider writing an analog of 'whatis' in php.

ppowell

I'm sorry but I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about.

Phil

konsu

from PHP code you invoke a system command. i am saying that you can instead implement the same functionality in your php code. just implement the 'whatis' command yourself and call it.

ppowell

If I'm following you correctly, you're telling me just to do this:

$msg = exec('whatis convert');

Problem is that I already know that "whatis" doesn't exist for MS-DOS, only for UNIX. Therefore, the command will fail even if ImageMagick is installed within Windows.

I need to know how to tell if it is installed within a Windows platform using PHP.

Phil

konsu

I am telling you to implement "whatis" yourself.

ppowell

Could you show me a coding example of what you're talking about? I'm absolutely NOT following you.

Phil

konsu

"whatis" is a command that probably searches the system PATH environment variable for a specific executable, maybe it checks some other system locations, etc. i am saying that you could write a php code that would look in to the PATH variable, split it, look in to each path in it, and check if the executable is there, also your code could check the windows' system registry (you want it to work on windows right?) and see if any keys specific to the application that you are looking for are there. does this make sense?

ppowell

Yes, that now makes perfect sense. Not sure if ImageMagick installation affects the system PATH variable or not, and I have no idea how I could possibly check registry keys and will have to look up that info..

Phil

konsu

what is ImageMagick? do they have a web site?

ppowell

ImageMagick is a program used to work with graphic files (JPEG, TIFF, BMP, GIF, PNG, etc.)

www.imagemagick.org

Phil

konsu

thank you. have you heard about MagickWand? do you rely on it? i know nothing about ImageMagick but it seems that they have integration with php, in which case you can just use function_exists() api to check. no?

ppowell

An update: Apparently it is not recommended to install ImageMagick on Windows if you plan to use its "convert" command because Windows OS has its own system-based "convert" command that converts FAT file systems into NTFS. Thus, you would have to place the convert command of ImageMagick in a separate path within the PATH environment variable and rename it to something like "convert2.exe".

Thus, I will not do any of this as this is too much overhead for a portable web application, and thus, it simply will not have that version of ImageMagick's functionality.

So thanx, apparently it was all for nothing I'm afraid.

Phil