[RESOLVED] File writing issue

Cenarkion

Hi folks, Im hoping somebody here can assist me with this very nub problem that Im having.

Im trying to take some data from a web page (basic form) and once submitted use that data to write a bash script (for linux) that can be actioned at a later date. This didnt seem like it would be hard, but I cant get it to cooperate at all.

I cant get the php page to write any string that contains an argument (or so it seems at least).

For example a snippet:

//Declare variable names retrieved from previous form
$Fn = $_POST["Fname"];
$Ln = $_POST["Lname"];
$ID = $_POST["IDnum"];
//Define the data file name and location
$filename = "StaffFile";

//Open the data file in write mode
$file = fopen($filename, "w") or exit ("Unable to open $filename");

//write the bash script using the information pulled from the form
$DATA = "if [ USER = "root" ]; then";
fwrite($file, $DATA);

fclose($file);

The above code will not write the "If [ USER = "root" ]; then" to a file. It will if I remove any operators from the string, but then it wont be much of a script if I do that.
Is there any way to create a file in this manner?

Also on a similar topic, the script Im wishing to create is obviously much longer than the snippet provided, can the whole script be referenced at once as a string or does it need to taken line by line?

I thank you in advance for your time.

Cena.

YAOMK

try to use string literals:

$DATA = 'if [ USER = "root" ]; then';

bradgrafelman

Your problem is that you didn't escape your string delimiters. This would have been obvious had you used the

bbcode tags:

$DATA = "if [ USER = "root" ]; then";

bradgrafelman

Cenarkion wrote:
can the whole script be referenced at once as a string or does it need to taken line by line?

I'm not sure what you mean by "referenced", but you can of course write or read the entire file at once - no need to go line-by-line.

Cenarkion

Thanks for the help guys, I'd forgotten entirely about the difference between ' and " DOH!.

Ive probably gone about it the hard way, but have gone through the script line by line alternating between using " and ' depending on which variables I need passed from the web page and which ones I will pick up when I run the script. Major PITA! But, it works. So thanks again! 😃

To clarify what I mean, another snippet of the horendous code lol

$Data = 'if [ $USER = "root" ]; then';
fwrite($file, "$Data\n");
$Data = '        echo "root user verified"';
fwrite($file, "$Data\n");
$Data = '        useradd -c "';
fwrite($file, $Data);
$Data = "$Fn $Ln";
fwrite($file, $Data);
$Data = '" -m';
fwrite($file, $Data);
$Data = " $ID";
fwrite($file, "$Data\n");

bradgrafelman

But why not just do:

$Data = "if [ $USER = \"root\" ]; then
        echo \"root user verified\"
        useradd -c \"$Fn $Ln\" -m $ID
";
fwrite($file, $Data);

Cenarkion

Probably because I'm a complete and utter newb, and hadn't really thought to deep about what exactly the \ operator does.

Seeing your use of it, it becomes very apparent that I could've saved myself an hour or so of ripping apart a script. Oh well, we live n learn.

Thanks champ!