I have created a simple website that will help me in my many projects by creating a sub domain for each new website project that I take on.
I keep going back to the older websites I've created so I have decided to keep all of them as a sub domain on localhost.
My PHP code works fine to add the information to the relevant files.
But I need to restart Apache for the changes to take affect.
I know PHP runs from the Apache service. Is it possible therefor to stop and start or even restart the Apache service from PHP code?
Yes, with exec()
exec("apachectl restart");
You might want to allow programs to close themselves before just shutting down the server, so I'd recommend:
exec("apachectl graceful");
Make sure PHP doesn't run in safemode (<= PHP 5.3), as these functions won't be available then.
Please note, this is how I restart apache on my server, you might have to adjust the command.
Also think about the permissions. Not all users (and probably not the one running php scripts) have permission to stop the server.
Related
I'm trying to create a WHM / Plesk Type Control Panel for my Clients to use. I am running XAMPP on a VPS and want users to be able to, for example, ban IP's however for the change to take effect Apache needs to be restarted.
Is there a way using PHP the user can click a button and the Apache Service will restart?
I have tried using the following PHP code but all this does is Stop the Apache Server, it doesn't bring it back up?
<?php shell_exec("apache_stop.bat"); ?>
<?php shell_exec("apache_start.bat"); ?>
Both bat files are in the same directory as the php file and I have amended them so that the files are relative to them by adding this ..\..\ to the file paths.
Is there one file that I can run that will do both tasks automatically or is there a better way to do this?
After you stop apache, it exit and do not start second job. You may use script that get this two jobs
You cannot restart Apache from a script. When the first shell_exec is called, the server process ends, and so the second call will never be made.
As an alternative, I suggest you ban devices/IPs using PHP - perhaps save them in a text-file or database and check from there.
Or, you can refer to the answers given for this question.
I have a working PHP website at a client where I work which runs on IIS. As we are switching to MsSQL, I need to enable the php_pdo_sqlsrv_53_nts.dll. However once I'm enabling the extension, I start to receive a 500 error. My guess is that I need to restart the webserver but for certain reasons at this time we would like to avoid it.
Can you please tell me whether a restart of the web server is necessary on IIS to enable correctly a php dll?
A restart is required even if you work on your localhost !
yes - see Microsoft.com
Mind you, restarting any of my webserver takes only a few seconds so I'm not sure if that's a big issue for your client. Does he have more than one server with a load balancer or something? In that case you can do them one by one or something? Or maybe there's another smart idea of temporarily rerouting traffic elsewhere through changing the DNS?
Contrary to popular opinion, I'm going to say No, and here's why:
Since you are using IIS, you could try recycling the App Pool, if the restart is not necessarily urgent.
It might take a little while to cycle, but "recycle" uses an overlapping method, keeping the old process up until its active requests are finished while a new process handles any newly generated requests. This continues until all existing processes are finished, then the old pool gracefully exits. This will ensure that service is not disrupted for the end users. On the down side, if you have users that sit on the site for long periods of time, it may take a while before your PHP extension becomes available.
I've had success with this method in the past, was able to install PHP extensions without restarting IIS outright.
To Recycle in IIS 7:
Open Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager
Navigate to SERVERNAME > Application Pools
Select the pool you wish to recycle (the one attached to the site where you need the extension)
In the Action pane, click "Recycle..."
I need a simple "development" server for php, e.g. not apache.
In a modern environment, such as node.js, I can run node server.js inside any folder, and it will run as a server running the site specified by server.js. I can then run another node process from a different folder, and the two servers will never interfere or get in each other's way.
Is there a similar setup for php?
With apache, it seems to me that I need to "configure" the server ahead of time; I can't just drop into some folder and serve its content on some arbitrary port.
I want a command that I can use to run a php server from inside some folder, with minimum amount of configuration, for the purpose of being a development/testing only server.
For instance, suppose this server is called sps, then, I should be able to:
cd ~/code/proj1
sps
Perhaps it could require a simple config file, sps.conf that specifies the port number the server should listen to, plus maybe information about the database connection; but nothing more.
Does such a tool exist for php?
With the current version of PHP (< 5.4), you indeed have to configure a webserver (Apache, nginx, ...) to serve the directory in which you'll have your website -- the directory in which you'll work.
Generally, though, you'll only have a couple of websites, which means you won't have to re-configure your webserver too often.
And if you often have to create / test some small scripts, just create an Apache VirtualHost that points to some tests directory, in which you'll put all your test scripts (I have exactly that on my computer).
With PHP 5.4 (currently in alpha -- so not to be used on a production server just yet ^^), you'll have a built-in web server, which should pretty much answer your question.
try XAMPP Lite version http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp-windows.html
Is there a way to distribute a PHP program like a desktop app, so that even if the user of the app doesn't have a local server environment setup on there PCs, the app will still work?
I was thinking, if there was some type of portable server environment program which includes PHP/Apache, then we could create a batch file which when clicked would start up apache in the portable program and launch the PHP app in the user's default browser. That way PHP apps could be distributed like desktop apps.
But the question is, is there such a portable server environment program that can be used for this?
Yes, if you google for XAMPP portable, you can find several versions of fully portable, fully functioning xampp servers for the go. You would have to make sure it contains all the security settings and extensions you need.
The file your user launches should be an .html file to be sure it opens in your browser. As you need to point the user to his own localhost to run your app (otherwise PHP won't be executed and he'd see a plain html file), you'd have to create a redirect, possibly using javascript or a simple "click here to start" link.
The XAMPP only provides half of the solution:
In addition to the XAMPP you can use Phar files that give you the ability to package your PHP applications as a unit for installation and/or deployment.
You can configure a separate php file which will handle any database creations and initial configuration which can be set to run on the first time.
For a helpful start guide consider the following link:
http://phpmaster.com/packaging-your-apps-with-phar/
Finally if you want to make it seamless (easier) to the user, consider writing a Batch script which will handle running some of the task required (Such as starting apache and mysql and running run.php). Take note of using relative rather than absolute directories to make script development easier.
I am working on an application that runs locally on a Fedora 10 machine through PHP and Apache. It depends on a process that runs in the background.
The higher-ups want to be able to start/stop/restart the process, through the browser. I was trying to get this to work by having PHP make calls to the system using exec() and shell_exec, but it doesn't seem to work.
When I try to start the process using "exec('processName')", nothing happens.
When I try to use "exec('killall processName')", SELinux starts constantly popping up warnings that the process was permitted (because I put it into permissive mode), however it doesn't actually kill the process! But this seems to go on even after the page is fully loaded!?!?
I AM able to call another script in a similar fashion: "exec('/var/www/cgi-bin/ControlProgram START')". So I'm not really sure what the major differences are between the two calls/commands.
I also put the script call into the /etc/rc.local file to have the script run at login. However, will I be able to kill this script from PHP since its run by... the system?
I'm not a guru when it comes to permissions/SELinux, so don't spare on the gory details! Thanks in advance!
If you have administrative control over this system you will want to check the PHP configuration (make sure it is the config profile for the web server).
Safe_Mode will prevent PHP from executing anything outside a particular folder. In a shared hosting environment, this usually means you can only execute things that are relative to your home/www folder--which seems to be the case based on your notes.
I believe I found the problem. I'm still not exactly sure what the problem is, but it looks like it has something to do with file/directory permissions. When I moved the scripts into my /var/www/html directory, the scripts ran. I moved them into /var/www/cgi-bin and they work there too. So it might be something where apache can't execute scripts that are outside the /var/www directory, or at least it can't do it directly. Thanks for your help though!
It sounds like old school unix permissions and how apache operates. I do recall (though it has been some time) that apache is careful on what it will execute. Double check your octals.
To verify that it isn't SELinux you can disable it instead of putting it in permissive. though this will cause a file system relabel (or should). At that point your extended attributes with the SELinux contexts could get out of wack and cause SELinux problems once in enforcing again.