I am having issues executing a VBScript through Apache (WAMP) on Windows Server 2012. I am attempting to convert a Docx to PDF, and the script runs perfectly from the command line, but fails when running through PHP. Rather than posting the vbscript, I will provide a link to it: http://bit.ly/1gngYAn
When executed through PHP as follows, WINWORD.exe starts, as does the VBScript, and it hangs there and nothing happens. No PDF is generated (and I never see the ~temporary.docx hidden file pop in the directory).
I have tried just about every iteration of exec, system, passthru and COM ( 'WScript.Shell' ), and all have the same outcome.
To avoid "escaping" issues, I also tried executing the script though a .bat file so no arguments needed to be passed, and the outcome was the same.
Here is my current php code (convert.vbs is the code from the link above):
$obj = new COM ( 'WScript.Shell' );
$obj->Run ( 'cmd /C wscript.exe //B C:\Users\Administrator\Desktop\convert.vbs c:\wamp\www\fileconv\temp_store\52fa8272bf84f.docx', 1, false );
//I have tried different "window styles" too, and it doesn't make a difference
I also tried modifying the apache service user to run as administrator (this is not a production server), and enabled "Allow service to interact with the desktop", and it had the same outcome.
I have also made sure the directories had "full control" by everyone (reading, writing, executing, etc).
It runs perfectly if I run from the command line or with my ".bat" file.
Since it hangs (the script and word, not apache), I have looked at the event viewer in the control panel, but there are no events that pertain.
My questions is firstly, why is this happening, and secondly, if the first cannot be answered, is there a way that I can get a more in depth look at what is happening when the process is executed, as to further troubleshoot it? As of now, I have no data to review or output to see to help me troubleshoot.
Please feel free to ask for any details. I have tried many, many iterations to try to get this to work, searched high and low, and can't seem to come up with any answers.
I appreciate your assistance,
Louis
It took me a couple of days, but here is the solution I found:
I used PsExec - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897553.aspx
The following flags are required: -h -i -accepteula -u -p
(I tried without the -h, -accepteula and -i, but no dice. This is running on Windows Server 2012 under WAMP)
Here is an example:
exec('c:\psexec\PsExec -h -i -accepteula -u Administrator -p '.$password.' C:\Windows\System32\CScript.exe //Nologo //B c:\wamp\www\fileconv\convert.vbs '.$filename)
Now it executes properly and as intended.
I hope this helps someone in the same situation!
PS The WScript.Shell method of execution I used in my question works just as well as exec(), except exec() waits until the process exits.
You should use exec() function
this is the url http://php.net/manual/fr/function.exec.php
Related
I have a Windows Server 2016 VPS with Plesk and PHP 7.1x.
I am trying to execute a simple AutoHotKey script from PHP using the following command:
<?php shell_exec('start /B "C:\Program Files\AutoHotkey\AutoHotkey.exe" C:\inetpub\vhosts\mydomain.com\App_Data\myahkscript.ahk'); ?>
This is the only line on the page. I have tried different ahk scripts, the current one simply creates a MsgBox.
When I execute my php page, on VPS Task Manager I see three processes created with the expected USR: cmd.exe, conhost.exe and php-cgi.exe. However, my PHP page just sits waiting on the server and nothing actually happens on the server.
I have also tried the same line except replacing shell_exec with exec. This seems to make no difference. I have tried without start /b with both commands. In that case the PHP page completes but no new processes are started.
I cannot find any errors in any logs: Mod_Security, Plesk Firewall, IIS.
Any ideas?
EDIT:
I tried my command from the VPS command prompt and immediately slapped in the face with the obvious issue of the space in 'Program Files'. I quoted the string as shown above and the command works. This eliminated the hang when running from PHP. However, the command still does nothing when executed from the web page.
EDIT:
Based on suggestions from the referenced post 'debugging exec()':
var_dump: string(0)""
$output: Array()
$return_val: 1
One point was that I would probably not be able to invoke GUI applications. That puts a damper on the idea.
Ok, after having bashed my head on this for hours I decided to ask for help. I have a Windows Server 2008 running Apache 2.4 and PHP 7.1. My application must run a PHP script on the server when the user clicks a button on the browser.
This is working fine on my desktop with Windows 10. However, on the server, exec() returns "null" and an exit code of 255.
I read all I could find on exec() issues and tried the following:
exec("C:\\PHP7\\php.exe -v", $output);
I got the proper response containing PHP's version information.
Then I decided to check the configuration files:
exec("C:\\PHP7\\php.exe --ini", $output);
All files were in place.
Then I decided to perform a syntax check on my script:
exec("C:\\PHP7\\php.exe -d display_errors=1 -l C:\\Apache24\\htdocs\\script.php", $output);
No errors were found.
Finally I decided to check the user account:
exec("whoami", $output);
Got "NT Authority\SYSTEM" as expected. To make sure that the script was able to run under the SYSTEM account I used SysInternals psexec:
psexec -s C:\PHP7\php.exe C:\Apache24\htdocs\script.php
Everything ran smoothly.
In other words, the script shows no problems when executed from the command line, either under a user account or the system account. I have also proven that PHP is being properly invoked by exec().
So, then I decided to check for "hidden" errors in my code adding the following two lines to the very beginning of the script:
error_reporting(E_ALL);
ini_set('display_errors', 1);
But, no joy. And I'm out of ideas.
Can any good soul help me on this?
Thanks a bunch,
Miguel.
Finally! The key to the answer was here: PHP exec() git fetch failing with return value 255.
I was unable to see any errors, even adding the "2>&1" pipe redirection to my commands. After reading that article, I learned that proc_open() is way better than exec(). Quoting from PHP's documentation:
proc_open() is similar to popen() but provides a much greater degree of control over the program execution
So, I replaced my exec() for a few lines of code (refer to the example in the manual) and found that the problem was being caused by the Zend Opcache, which was enabled for CLI. The quickier solution for me was to disable it in the command line:
php.exe -d opcache.enable_cli=0 myscript.php
Voilà! Problem solved!
I'll try to explain my problem in a time line history:
I've tried to run several external scripts from php and to return the exit code to the server with an ajax call again.
A single call should start or stop an service on that machine. That works fine on this developing machine.
OS : raspbian Os
Webserver : NginX 1.2.1
Php : 5.4.3.6
However I've exported the code to a larger machine with much more power and everything seemed to work fine but one thing:
A single call causes the php-fpm to freezes and never to come back. By detailed examination I found out, that the call created a zombie process I can not terminate (even with sudo).
OS : Ubuntu
Webserver : NginX 1.6.2
Php : 5.5.9
The only solution seemed to stop the php-fpm proc and than to restart it again. Then everything seems to work fine again, as long as I try to call that script again.
Calling php line
exec("sudo ".$script, $output, $return_var);
(With all variables are normal 'strings' with no special chars)
Start script
#!/bin/sh
service radicale start 2>&1
The service by the way started, but every time the webserver freezes and I had to restart php manually, but that is not acceptable (even for a web server). But only for that single script and only for that service (radicale) with that solemn command (start).
Searching in Google brought me to the point that there is a conflict between the php commands exec() and session_start().
Links:
https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=44942
https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=44994
Their conclusion was, that that bug could be worked around with such a construct:
...
session_write_close();
exec("sudo ".$script, $output, $return_var);
session_start();
...
But that, for my opinion, was no debugging, but more a helplessly workaround, because you loose the functionality of letting the user know, that his actions have fully functioned, but more let him believe an error has occurred. Much more confusing is the fact, that it runs fully on the Raspberry Pi A, but not on a 64-bit machine with a much larger CPU and 8 GB RAM.
So is there a real solution anywhere or is this workaround the only way to solve that problem? I've read a article about php having some probs with exec/shell_exec and the recognition of the return value? How can that be lost? Someone's having a guess?
THX for reading that long awful English, but I'm no native speaker and was no well listening student in my lessons.
It is likely the case that the new machine simply is not set up the way the Raspberry PI was setup -
You need to do a few things in your shell before this will work on your larger machine:
1). Allow php to use sudo.
sudo usermod -G sudo -a your-php-user
Note that to get the username for your-php-user, you can just run a script that says:
<?php echo get_current_user(); ?> - or alternatively:
<?php echo exec('whoami'); ?> -
2). Allow that user to use sudo without a password
sudo visudo - this command will open /etc/sudoers with a failsafe to keep you from botching anything.
Add this line to the very end:
your-php-user ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: /path/to/your/script,/path/to/other/script
You can put as many scripts there, separated by commas, as you need.
Now, your script should work just fine.
AGAIN, please note that you need to change your-php-user to whatever your php user is.
Hope this helps!
This is not a real solution, but it's a better solution than none.
Calling a bash script with
<?php
...
exec("sudo ".$script, $output, $return_var);
...
?>
ends only in this special case in a zombie Thread. As php-fpm waits in expectation for a result, it still holds the line, not giving up nor time outs for the rest of its thread still living. So every other request to the php server is still in queue and will never be processed. That may be okay for some long living or working threads, but my request was done in some [ms].
I did not found the cause for this. As far as I could do debugging, I wasn't the triggered Radicale process fault, for this on gave a any time clean and brave 0 as in return. It seemed that a php process just couldn't get a return line from it and so it still waits and waits.
No time left I changed the malfunction script from
#!/bin/sh
service radicale start 2>&1
to
#!/bin/sh
service radicale start > /dev/null 2>&1 &
... so signaling every returning line to nirvana and disconnecting all subroutines. For now the server did not hung itself up and works as desired. But the feeling this may be a major bug in php still stays in the back of my head, with the hope, that - someday - someone may defeat that bug.
I have a development / testing setup on a windows box and need to test calling a background process. I am using http://www.somacon.com/p395.php as a list of options for running a background service.
Here is the sample code I am trying to run:
$string = "PsExec.exe -d cmd /c \"mspaint\"";
echo $string;
exec($string, $data);
This works when I type it into the command line.
I haven't attempted to do a lot of exec's on Windows, but it would be nice to be able to test it locally before moving to a Linux box.
Right now, I am thinking it has something to do with the fact that psexec opens a new window? I don't know how to fix that, however.
There are no apache or PHP error logs being generated, the page just never stops. This also seems to override PHP's max execution time.
EDIT:
This is not fully correct answer. The command psexec \\machine cmd.exe /C 1 & dir won't hang because psexec first return saying that command 1 doesn't exists in remote machine and then dir is evaluated in the local machine. I got tricked by cmd operator order. The & operator is being invoked in the local cmd.exe process, not the remote one. But the logic still applies if you quote the command: psexec \\machine cmd.exe /C "1 & dir".
Original Answer:
There is something strange going on while invoking psexec within PHP in windows. No matter if you are using shell_exec(), exec(), popen() or proc_open(). It will hang anyway.
Honestly I don't know what's going on, you could also download PsExplorer in order to trace your process command line, arguments, etc. You'll find this tool very useful.
I'm using XAMPP on Windows, and after certain tests I found this:
First of all create a test file (i.e. test.php) and place it in your web server so you can access it with this content:
<?php
echo "<pre>".shell_exec("psexec \\\\machine <options> cmd.exe /C dir")."</pre>";
?>
Note that you could use GET arguments in order to create a more flexible example. To debunk that this indeed is working before you test over a webpage, issue the command php <path-to-the-file>\test.php. That will work perfectly. But, it won't work on a web browser.
If you kill the process, you'll get the first line: El volumen de la unidad C no tiene etiqueta.. Next line, in my language there's an accent included so I thought It could be encoding (or code pages) issues. So instead of cmd.exe /C dir I tested cmd.exe /C chcp 850 && dir. That, for my surprise, works.
Then, I realize that no matter what command you set before it will also work, for instance, cmd.exe /C 123 & dir (note the single & as I'm not evaluating the command output).
Honestly, I don't know what is going on with psexec and PHP via web browser. More surprisingly, commands like cmd.exe /C copy cmd.exe cmd.exe.deleteme and cmd.exe /C mkdir deletethis will work!
So, you could give it a try to cmd.exe /C 1 & \"mspaint\" as your problem and my seems similars. For single commands could be a workaround but I'm developing an unattended framework for installing software and all my files are .cmd or .exe or .bat files.
Let me know If you found something interesting :)
I have a solution!
This topic is old but still relevant. I wanted to use PsExec 2.2 with PHP 7.2.0 RC3 to execute a script remotely. I need the output of the script and so i was using PsExec.exe -accepteula \\HOST -u xxx -p xxx with >> LOGFILE 2>&1.
Because I dont want to wait the script to finish, I used exec() like this: exec('start /p cmd /c PsExec.exe -accepteula \\HOST -u xxx -p xxx >> LOGFILE 2>&1').
My php script continues working and PsExec does his job too.
Everything works fine but my LOGFILE always contains only the first line of the STDOUT output.
I have tried many solutions mentioned here, but none of them worked for me. Executing the command in the CMD directly, PsExec returns all lines of STDOUT but inside php it does not.
At the php doc for exec() I have found comments where some people used PsExec to run a programm without waiting (http://php.net/manual/de/function.exec.php#86438). As a last chance I tried the following: exec('PsExec.exe -accepteula -i -d cmd /c PsExec.exe -accepteula \\HOST -u xxx -p xxx >> LOGFILE 2>&1')... And it works!
PsExec now returns everthing into my LOGFILE. I hope I could help you and save you some time.
My current solution was to use WScript.Shell:
$string = "cmd /c \"cd {$full_base}{$newSource} && ant release > compile.txt\"";
$Shell = new COM("WScript.Shell");
$exec = $Shell->Run($string, 0, false);
Not sure if this was definitively answered or not, but I was having the same problem with PSEXEC hanging, though in my case, on some machines it did, and others it didn't. It turned out to be accepting the EULA. On machines that I'd run it from a command line and used the same username/password as my PHP script, it ran without hanging.
Further research showed that I could specify the EULA acceptance by including it in the command being executed from PHP:
This DID hang: psexec \\MACHINENAME ...
This did NOT: psexec /accepteula \\MACHINENAME ...
ok here are the things. I also jumped into similar condition as you were and hopefully since i am commenting this late you must have figured out a way too .But for those who are still in this problem , i suggest them few tips .
1)The code that has been posted is super fine , no problem with that thing. If your page hangs out infinitely then try to add -i -d params before the source exe. (see the documentation HERE ). You can also add -accepteula (EULA) flag in the command to let the page load and not to wait for that command to finish(solves the infinite wait problem).
2)For me these things didnt work . It doesnt mean that you guys dont try these things .these are the first steps if your code starts working then thats fine for you.Else ,make another account as an adminstrative one ,type services.msc in the start menu , you will see the page there. Search for wampapache or xammp services ,excluding mysqld one. Then simply click on that service .GO to log on tab ,select This account .Select the previously made admin acc , type its password if you set that else leave the textbox empty.Type the name of that account as \\accname at the name field . If u dont know the account name ,Click to Browse->Advanced->FInd now you will see that name account . Select, apply settings and restart the wamp app and you are good to go :)
Also make sure to double check the string you feed into your exec command. Seems trivial, but had me stumped for awhile. In many cases PHP escapes the double backslash in your machine address which throws everything off. To get around this, create your string like:
$string = 'PSExec /accepteula \\\\MACHINENAME ...'
I know there's been similar questions but they don't solve my problem...
After checking out the folders from the repo (which works fine).
A method is called from jquery to execute the following in php.
exec ('svn cleanup '.$checkout_dir);
session_write_close(); //Some suggestion that was supposed to help but doesn't
exec ('svn commit -m "SAVE DITAMAP" '.$file);
These would output the following:
svn cleanup USER_WORKSPACE/0A8288
svn commit -m "SAVE DITAMAP" USER_WORKSPACE/0A8288/map.ditamap
1) the first line (exec ('svn cleanup')...executes fine.
2) as soon as I call svn commit then my server hangs, and everything goes to hell
The apache error logs show this error:
[notice] Child 3424: Waiting 240 more seconds for 4 worker threads to finish.
I'm not using the php_svn module because I couldn't get it to compile on windows.
Does anyone know what is going on here? I can execute the exact same cmd from the terminal windows and it executes just fine.
since i cannot find any documentation on jquery exec(), i assume this is calling php. i copied this from the documentation page:
When calling exec() from within an apache php script, make sure to take care of stdout, stderr and stdin (as in the example below). If you forget this and your shell command produces output the sh and apache deamons may never return (they will normally time out after a few minutes). From the calling web page the script may seem to not return any data.
If you want to start a php process that continues to run independently from apache (with a different parent pid) use nohub. Example:
exec('nohup php process.php > process.out 2> process.err < /dev/null &');
hope it helps
Okay, I've found the problem.
It actually didn't have anything to do with the exec running the background, especially because a one file commit doesn't take a lot of time.
The problem was that the commit was expecting a --username and --password that didn't show up, and just caused apache to hang.
To solve this, I changed the svnserve.conf in the folder where I installed svn and changed it to allow non-auth users write access.
I don't think you'd normally want to do this, but my site already authenticates the user name and pass upon logging in.
Alternatively you could