I am trying for last 3 hours to tell PHP to run a simple file. I am using wamp server for windows in local host (Windows 8)
I've tried with exec() working with:
echo exec('whoami');
I got response nt authority.
Also tested with:
if(function_exists('exec')) {
echo "exec is enabled";
}
So it probably works?
I am trying to run a file called tester.php
When I include it, its working, when I require it its working. I need to execute it in background. When I refresh file, code is working without any error, it writes to the database normally.
When i try to exec it its not working.
I tried :
exec("php http://localhost/diplomski/program/defender/tester.php");
exec("php-cli http://localhost/diplomski/program/defender/tester.php");
exec("http://localhost/diplomski/program/defender/tester.php");
Not working, also tried:
exec("php http://127.0.0.1/diplomski/program/defender/tester.php");
exec("php-cli http://127.0.0.1/diplomski/program/defender/tester.php");
exec("php-cli d:\wamp\www\diplomski\program\defender/tester.php")
Not working also tried:
exec("php tester.php");
exec("php-cli tester.php");
exec("tester.php");
Also tried:
$WshShell = new COM("WScript.Shell");
$oExec = $WshShell->Run("D:\wamp\bin\php\php5.3.13\php-win.exe -f d:\wamp \www\diplomski\program\defender/tester.php", 0, false);
Tried this, its refreshing infinitely and not working:
exec("php d:\wamp\www\diplomski\program\defender/tester.php");
exec("php-cli d:\wamp\www\diplomski\program\defender/tester.php");
exec("d:\wamp\www\diplomski\program\defender/tester.php");
I'm starting to pull my hair out here. First time I'm trying to use exec() and I'm not very good with it or with the commands.
Give the full path to the PHP executable and the full path to the PHP script. You can save the output in $output to see what the script produced:
exec("d:/path/to/php.exe d:/wamp/www/diplomski/program/defender/tester.php", $output);
print_r($output);
1) What version of php? If it is older then 5.4.0 php can be in safe mode, when safe mode is enabled, you can only execute files within the safe_mode_exec_dir.
2)Note to this function in php.net
Note:
If a program is started with this function, in order for it to continue running in the background, the output of the program must be redirected to a file or another output stream. Failing to do so will cause PHP to hang until the execution of the program ends.
3) So you can try this How to make php script run another php script you can try this
<?php
$somearg = escapeshellarg('blah');
exec("php file2.php $somearg > /dev/null &");
4) You can create a scheduled task How to run a PHP file in a scheduled task (Windows Task Scheduler)
In addition to the earlier answers, let me add that if you want to execute a PHP file from within PHP, you may want to consider the PHP function include instead:
include $path."tester.php"
I guess that would be (much?) more efficient than to spawn a new shell which executes a new instance of PHP which executes the file. But of course the choice of the "better option" may depend on the context.
Related
This question already has answers here:
How do you run a .bat file from PHP?
(7 answers)
php How do I start an external program running - Having trouble with system and exec
(3 answers)
Closed 3 years ago.
Before everyone starts butting in with "security risks" "cant be done" stop there and read the ENTIRE post
I have a web server set up from a home laptop which is serving as a games web server im trying to create a GUI so its easier for us to maintain the server and im trying to use batch files to do the actions on the computer
So to put this into perspective I have my index file index.php
<form method="post">
<input type="submit" name="startServer" value="Start Server">
</form>
<?
if(isset($_POST['startServer'])){
exec('batch/startServer.bat');
}
?>
And my startServer.bat will run on the laptop running the server and will do all the actions nesscary to start our game server so there is another directory "Instance" containing an excutable "Server.exe" which the batch file will run
The issue im having is running the web server and testing this it doesnt work if I open the batch file directly it works but it seems the php code doesnt work
For clarification I am using apache and my browser is chrome
And just a quick question for anyone willing to answer the route im going is correct right? Using php would allow everything to run on the machine hosting the server so the end user will only see the GUI and the server would run the batch files and everything on the web server and not the local machine if that makes sense?
EDIT: To be more clear about what's going on the function exec runs but it just hangs like the application is loading I need a solution that will actually open the application are my host computer for example if I wanted to open up notepad I press a button on the Web server and notepad will open on the computer
EDIT 2: I would like to note that I dont exactly need to use the exec function and I have tried all the answers to date 7/19/2017:3:45pm none are working if I do something on the sorts echo exec('start text.bat'); I will get a This is a test to show your batch is working and simply just have echo ..... in the batch file the main issue I am having is the server is not physically showing the opened file like displaying the GUI lets just take notepad for example
I can open notepad and get some return value as long as my batch file closes notepad once its finished running however the GUI for notepad is never displayed and thats very important
I read in a few articles about using apache as a service which im pretty sure I am but I do know that xaammp has suffiecient priveleges and I have checked the box that says "Allow apache to interact with desktop" however no GUI is popping up thats the main point I guess im trying to get across is I need to display the GUI not just open the file as a background service.
If it makes answering easier I am open to switching programming languages if theres one that can do what I want easier
Your theory is correct, it will run on the server however you may have issues running applications directly from php (with this method afaik it does not detach from the PHP, and the webapp "hangs" while the application is running).
Make sure: return values are printed / logged. Just an
<?php
if(isset($_POST['startServer'])){
echo exec('batch/startServer.bat');
}
?>
Could point you to the right direction. The exec function may have been disabled in your distribution.
Using
<?php
instead of
<?
is highly advised, by default short_tags are not enabled in most distributions (wamp, xamp, etc).
Set debug mode and print everything to get information about the problem:
<?php
ini_set('display_errors', 1);
ini_set('display_startup_errors', 1);
error_reporting(E_ALL);
if(isset($_POST['startServer'])){
echo exec('batch/startServer.bat');
}
?>
If you don't have any response, try a simple batch file with a "hello world" to test if it works.
Be aware, the rights and limitations are comes from the php environment, the batch file inherits the same rights running the PHP code / Apache (in case of mod_php)
In php manual about exec function, there is a note :
Note: If a program is started with this function, in order for it to
continue running in the background, the output of the program must be
redirected to a file or another output stream. Failing to do so will
cause PHP to hang until the execution of the program ends.
I think "hangs like the application is loading" is your application waiting for the bat file terminated / closed to get the output result
Let's try another approach, i found it here, the concept is to create a scheduler that execute the program you want and call it using command.
hope this help :
shell_exec('SCHTASKS /F /Create /TN _notepad /TR "notepad.exe" /SC DAILY /RU INTERACTIVE');
shell_exec('SCHTASKS /RUN /TN "_notepad"');
shell_exec('SCHTASKS /DELETE /TN "_notepad" /F');
If this doesn't work
Check whether you have declared safe_mode = Off inside php.ini
From here:
How do you run a .bat file from PHP?
Have you tried:
system("cmd /c C:[path to file]"); ?
You might need to run it via cmd, eg:
system("cmd /c C:[path to file]");
Or Try following options
1.
<?php
exec('c:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe /c START C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.bat');
?>
2.
When you use the exec() function, it is as though you have a cmd terminal open and are typing commands straight to it.
Use single quotes like this $str = exec('start /B Path\to\batch.bat');
The /B means the bat will be executed in the background so the rest of the php will continue after running that line, as opposed to $str = exec('start /B /C command', $result); where command is executed and then result is stored for later use.
<?php
pclose(popen("start /B test.bat", "r")); die();
?>
i think this is a containment issue.
if you run the app under the process of php run by iiswebuser when php terminates it will close all spawned child processes in windows. there is a very quick way a command to break an application out of the child process containment using the start command.
if(isset($_POST['startServer'])){
exec('start batch/startServer.bat');
}
Diagram of containment as i explained it (simplisticly)
IIS (IIS runs as an IISUser)
php (application)
cmd.exe (batch)
using start bring it to the root of that tree
IIS (IIS runs as an IISUser)
php (application)
cmd.exe (batch)
Baim Wrong was correct in the first part of the response: you have to redirect output of the script or your PHP code will hang. Also, you have to move process in the background.
This is easy to do on *nix:
system("/usr/local/bin/shell.sh >> /tmp/log.log 2>&1 &");
I know that you can redirect the output on Windows but not sure how to move the process in the background. You should check DOS manual or try with power shell.
you can use either system or exec php function
$path = __DIR__ . '/batch/startServer.bat';
exec('cmd /c start ' . $path);
or
$path = __DIR__ . '/batch/startServer.bat';
$lastLine = system('cmd /c start ' . $path);
You are having some issue about running application directly from exec. I was having the same issue of running file using exec. It was solved by passing another parameter 2>&1.
exec('some_command 2>&1', $output);
print_r($output); // to see the response to your command
Check the values printed by output see exec function
<?php
ini_set('display_errors', 1);
ini_set('display_startup_errors', 1);
error_reporting(E_ALL);
$output = array();
if(isset($_POST['startServer'])){
exec('batch/startServer.bat 2>&1', $output);
print_r($output);
} else {
echo "Not posted";
}
?>
I've got a simple question:
How can I run a batch-script in the background on a windows machine? I need to establish a database connection with MySQL over XAMPP. For this, I need to run "mysql_start.bat" and the problem is, that the following code stops executing on the exec-command of PHP (I think it waits until the script is finished).
exec("cmd /c C:\\xampp\\mysql_start.bat > tmp.txt 2>&1");
Hint: Redirecting the output isn't necessary, I just have tried it, but also didn't work.
I haven't found any other possibilties to start MySQL.
Hopefully someone can help me.
Yours Michael.
Covert your batch file into windows executable using "Bat_to_exe converter" and just give the path removing "cmd /c" as parameters to exec().
Also use exception handling methods or "die" to check if the function returns any error.
I am wanting to execute a large, database intensive script, but do not need to wait for the process to finish. I would simply like to call the script, let it run in the background and then redirect to another page.
EDIT:
i am working on a local Zend community server, on Windows 7.
I have access to remote linux servers where the project also resides, so i can do this on linux or windows.
i have this
public function createInstanceAction()
{
//calls a seperate php process which creates the instance
exec('php -f /path/to/file/createInstance.php');
Mage::getSingleton('adminhtml/session')->addSuccess(Mage::helper('adminhtml')->__('Instance creation process started. This may take up to a few minutes.'));
$this->_redirect('instances/adminhtml_instances/');
return;
}
this works perfectly, but the magento application hangs around for the process to finish. it does everything i expect, logging to file from time to time, and am happy with how its running. Now all i would like to do is have this script start, the controller action does not hang around, but instead redirects and thats that. from what I have learnt about exec(), you can do so by changing the way i call exec() above, to :
exec('php -f /path/to/file/createInstance.php > /dev/null 2>&1 &');
which i took from here
if i add "> /dev/null 2>&1 &" to the exec call, it doesnt wait around as expected, but it does not execute the script anymore. Could someone tell me why, and if so, tell me how i can get this to work please?
Could this be a permission related issue?
thanks
EDIT : Im assuming it would be an issue to have any output logged to file if i call the exec function with (/dev/null 2>&1 &) as that would cancel that. is that correct?
After taking time to fully understand my own question and the way it could be answered, i have prepared my solution.
Thanks to all for your suggestions, and for excusing my casual, unpreparedness when asking the question.
The answer to the above question depends on a number of things, such as the operating system you are referring to, which php modules you are running and even as far as what webserver you are running. So if i had to start the question again, the first thing i would do is state what my setup is.
I wanted to achieve this on two environments :
1.) Windows 7 running Zend server community edition.
2.) Linux (my OS is Linux odysseus 2.6.32-5-xen-amd64 #1 SMP Fri Sep 9 22:23:19 UTC 2011 x86_64)
to get this right, i wanted it to work either way when deploying to windows or linux, so i used php to determine what the operating system was.
public function createInstanceAction()
{
//determines what operating system is Being used
if (strtoupper(substr(PHP_OS, 0, 3)) === 'WIN')
{
//This is a windows server
//call a seperate php process to run independently from the broswer action
pclose(popen("start php /path/to/script/script.php","r"));
}
else
{
//assuming its linux, but in fact it simply means its not windows
// to check for linux specifically use (strtoupper(substr(PHP_OS, 0, 3)) === 'LIN')
exec('php -f /path/to/file/script.php >/dev/null 2>&1 &');
}
//the browser will not hang around for this process to complete, and you can contimue with whatever actions you want.
//myscript log any out put so i can capture info as it runs
}
In short, ask questions once you understand them. there are many ways to to achieve the above, and this is just one solution that works for my development and production environments.
thanks for the help all.
PHP popen
From the docs (this should help you do other stuff, while that process is working; not sure if closing the current PHP process will kill the opened process):
/* Add redirection so we can get stderr. */
$handle = popen('/path/to/executable 2>&1', 'r');
echo "'$handle'; " . gettype($handle) . "\n";
$read = fread($handle, 2096);
echo $read;
pclose($handle);
Solution 2:
Trick the browser to close the connection (assuming there is a browser involved):
ob_start();
?><html><!--example html body--></html><?php
$strContents=ob_get_clean();
header("Connection: Close");
header("Content-encoding: none");//doesn't work without this, I don't know why:(
ignore_user_abort(true);
header("Content-type: text/html");
header("Content-Length: ".strlen($strContents));
echo $strContents;
flush();
//at this point a real browser would close the connection and finish rendering;
//crappy http clients like some curl implementations (and not only) would wait for the server to close the connection, then finish rendering/serving results...:(
//TODO: add long running operations here, exec, or whatever you have.
You could write a wrapper-script, say createInstance.sh like
#! /bin/bash
trap "" SIGHUP
php -f "$1" > logfile.txt 2>&1 &
Then you call the script from within PHP:
exec('bash "/path/to/file/createInstance.sh"');
which should detach the new php process most instantly from the script. If that doesen't help, you might try to use SIGABRT, SIGTERM or SIGINT instead of SIGHUP, I don't know exactly which signal is sent.
I've been able to use:
shell_exec("nohup $command > /dev/null & echo $!")
Where $command is for example:
php script.php --parameter 1
I've noticed some strange behavior with this. For example running mysql command line doesn't work, only php scripts seem to work.
Also, running cd /path/to/dir && php nohup $command ... doesn't work either, I had to chdir() within the PHP script and then run the command for it to work.
The PHP executable included with Zend Server seems to be what's causing attempts to run a script in the background (using the ampersand & operator in the exec) to fail.
We tested this using our standard PHP executable and it worked fine. It's something to do with the version shipped with Zend Server though our limited attempts to figure out what that was going on have not turned anything up.
I'm looking for the best, or any way really to start a process from php in the background so I can kill it later in the script.
Right now, I'm using: shell_exec($Command);
The problem with this is it waits for the program to close.
I want something that will have the same effect as nohup when I execute the shell command. This will allow me to run the process in the background, so that later in the script it can be closed. I need to close it because this script will run on a regular basis and the program can't be open when this runs.
I've thought of generating a .bat file to run the command in the background, but even then, how do I kill the process later?
The code I've seen for linux is:
$PID = shell_exec("nohup $Command > /dev/null & echo $!");
// Later on to kill it
exec("kill -KILL $PID");
EDIT: Turns out I don't need to kill the process
shell_exec('start /B "C:\Path\to\program.exe"');
The /B parameter is key here.
I can't seem to find where I found this anymore. But this works for me.
Will this function from the PHP Manual help?
function runAsynchronously($path,$arguments) {
$WshShell = new COM("WScript.Shell");
$oShellLink = $WshShell->CreateShortcut("temp.lnk");
$oShellLink->TargetPath = $path;
$oShellLink->Arguments = $arguments;
$oShellLink->WorkingDirectory = dirname($path);
$oShellLink->WindowStyle = 1;
$oShellLink->Save();
$oExec = $WshShell->Run("temp.lnk", 7, false);
unset($WshShell,$oShellLink,$oExec);
unlink("temp.lnk");
}
Tried to achieve the same on a Windows 2000 server with PHP 5.2.8.
None of the solutions worked for me. PHP kept waiting for the response.
Found the solution to be :
$cmd = "E:\PHP_folder_path\php.exe E:\some_folder_path\backgroundProcess.php";
pclose(popen("start /B ". $cmd, "a")); // mode = "a" since I had some logs to edit
From the php manual for exec:
If a program is started with this function, in order for it to continue running in the background, the output of the program must be redirected to a file or another output stream. Failing to do so will cause PHP to hang until the execution of the program ends.
ie pipe the output into a file and php won't wait for it:
exec('myprog > output.txt');
From memory, I believe there is a control character that you can prepend (like you do with #) to the exec family of commands that also prevents execution from pausing - can't remember what it is though.
Edit Found it! On unix, programs executed with & prepended will run in the background. Sorry, doesn't help you much.
On my Windows 10 and Windows Server 2012 machines, the only solution that worked reliably within pclose/popen was to invoke powershell's Start-Process command, as in:
pclose(popen('powershell.exe "Start-Process foo.bat -WindowStyle Hidden"','r'));
Or more verbosely if you want to supply arguments and redirect outputs:
pclose(popen('powershell.exe "Start-Process foo.bat
-ArgumentList \'bar\',\'bat\'
-WindowStyle Hidden
-RedirectStandardOutput \'.\\console.out\'
-RedirectStandardError \'.\\console.err\'"','r'));
I am trying to invoke a script which takes several seconds (web services with 3rd party) using the PHP exec call. After much struggling, I reduced this to the classic hello world example. The calling script looks like:
exec('/usr/bin/php /home/quote2bi/tmp/helloworld.php > /tmp/execoutput.txt 2>&1 &');
When I run this, the output execoutput.txt contains a copy of the invoking script page, not hello world as I expected.
Why can't I get this PHP script to execute using exec? Note that when I change the command to something like ls -l, the output is a directory listing as expected. btw, in case it matters, I did chmod the called script to 755...
Update - I moved the exec call to the end of the calling script and at least now I don't see the calling script executed in the output. Thx to posters and I will try some of these ideas.
Help!
Thanks
Steve
I had this issue also and it turns out this is a bug in php (#11430). The fix is to use php-cli when calling another php script within a php script. So you can still use exec but rather than use php use php-cli when calling it in the browser:
exec("php-cli somescript.php");
This worked for me.
What exec is doing is taking the rightmost command and appending it to your destination. If you have the shebang line in your php script, you shouldn't need to include the binary directive of the php interpreter.
if you just want the script's output, try:
exec('/home/quote2bi/tmp/helloworld.php > /tmp/execoutput.txt 2>&1 &')
however if you do not want the errors to be in the file, you should redirect the STDERR prior to outputting to the file. Like so:
exec('/home/quote2bi/tmp/helloworld.php 2> /dev/null > /tmp/execoutput.txt')
the above should only output the "Hello World" to the execoutput.
Edit:
Interesting you are getting this behaviour. You stated the command "ls" worked. Try making an alias for this and forward it to a file like so:
alias pexec='php /home/quote2bi/tmp/helloworld.php'
then
exec('pexec > /tmp/execoutput.txt 2>&1 &')
it seems to be a problem with the way exec handles input as opposed to the shell itself.
-John
The problem is with PHP itself, it treats everything as $argv in the script. It doesn´t redirect the output to a file ou to /dev/null.
I faced the same problem some time ago. What I did is to create a runscript.php in /opt/php-bin and then inside this script run what It should be running. Something like this:
$script = $argv[1]
$params = implode(' ', array_slice($argv, 2));
$cmd = "{$script} {$params} > /dev/null &";
$output = array();
$return = 0;
exec("php {$cmd}", $output, $return);
exit((int)$return);
And then you call it using:
exec('/opt/php-bin/runscript.php /path/to/your/script.php arg1 arg2')
It´s the only way I managed to get this working.
To avoid the stated problems of PHP in this area, why not put this in inside a shell script? PHP can then execute the shell script which has all the redirections handled internally.
If you need to dynamically change things, then why not write the shell script and then execute it (and of course, clean up afterwards)?
if you are just simply running a php script one possible way to execute the entire code is to use the include() that will run the php file and output any results. You cannot direct the output to a text file but it should appear in the browser window if you're Hello World php script looks like
<?php echo "Hello World!"; ?>
then it will spit that out in the browser. So your second code would look like
<?php include("helloWorld.php"); echo " PHP ROCKS";?>
resulting in a page that would look like,
Hello world! PHP ROCKS
This runs as if you run the script from browser.
This came across while working on a project on linux platform.
exec('wget http://<url to the php script>)
Hope this helps!!