[RESOLVED] Using shell_exec to create output file adds 2 questions marks to the end of filename

biker

(PHP Version 5.3.3-7+squeeze15)

Hello,

I am very very new to PHP, so I appreciate the patience and assistance.

For the following block of code, for some reason two question marks ("??") are being appended to the end of the filename of the output file when it is created on disk.

So instead of the filename being something like...

valueOFarg1_valueOFarg2_valueOFarg3

...the filename is...

valueOFarg1_valueOFarg2_valueOFarg3??

(emphasis on the trailing questions marks)

Thank you for your help!

CODE BLOCK:

<?php
$arg1_TEST1 = $_REQUEST['arg1'];
$arg2_TEST2 = $_REQUEST['arg2'];
$arg3_TEST3 = $_REQUEST['arg3'];

shell_exec('#!/bin/bash
FILENAME='.$arg1_TEST1.'_'.$arg2_TEST2.'_'.$arg3_TEST3.'
date > ./$FILENAME
echo '.$arg1_TEST1.':'.$arg2_TEST2.':'.$arg3_TEST3.' >> ./$FILENAME
date >> ./$FILENAME
exit');
?>

bradgrafelman

Welcome to PHPBuilder! When posting PHP code, please use the board's [noparse]

..

[/noparse] bbcode tags as they make your code much easier to read and analyze.

As for your issue, try surrounding the value of the FILENAME value in double quotes (e.g. FILENAME="foo" vs. just FILENAME=foo) to see if that removes the question marks. I'm wondering if there isn't some issue with the PHP script being written on Windows (e.g. it contains "\r\n" line endings) which aren't being interpreted as desired by the CLI.

biker

Hello,

Thank you for the suggestion and the tip re: bbcode tags.

Unfortunately, adding the double quotes didn't resolve.

I greatly appreciate the suggestion!

biker

p.s. I think you are on the right track because listing the files with -b options shows "\r\r" at the end of the filename.

if it's needed,...

-b, --escape
print C-style escapes for nongraphic characters

bradgrafelman

Can you show us what the code looks like after you've added the double quotes I suggested?

biker

well, with your help I was able to resolve
context: I had received this code from another person. somewhere along the way, maybe between zipping/unzipping/other, the file ended up in dos format...I believe since [dos] was displayed at the bottom of my editor (vim) whenever I saved changes I was testing.

running dos2unix fixed the problem
thank you for your assistance

dalecosp

Welcome to PHPBuilder. Please consider using the "thread tools" at the top of this message to mark the thread as RESOLVED. 🙂

biker

Sorry...thanks for the guidance!