how do I grep data from a file?

[Anon]

Hi there,

I'm not so experienced with php, but i'm looking for a way to grep content out of a specific file. I have made a directory-listing of files on my pc and I want to be able to make a search on a specific file.

This is the code:

<center>
<FORM METHOD="Post" ACTION="index.php">

<input type="text" name="mp3">
<input type="submit" value="Search mp3 ">
</form>

<?php

$searchdata = "/usr/local/www/data/mp3search/files";

$result = exec('cat $searchdata | grep $mp3');

echo $result

?>

There doesn't come any output.
Can someone tell me what a solution could be.

Regards,
Konstant

[Anon]

The problem is with your quotes. Use double quotes to allow PHP to interpret your variables.

If you change the line to:

$result = exec("grep $mp3 $searchdata");

it should work.

However... another way you might want to handle this, is to use PHP functionality, rather than making a system call. This way you're not forking another process.

try this:

<?php
$searchdata = file("/usr/local/www/data/mp3search/files");

for ($i = 0; $i < sizeof($searchdata); $i++) {
if (eregi($mp3,$searchdata[$i]))
$results[count($results)] = $searchdata[$i];
}
?>

Then all the matching results would be in the $results array.