PHP and Linux IPC sockets (and Dropbox) - php

Question

I need to get Dropbox's status on linux.
This is done by interacting with Dropbox using a unix socket file as IPC.
Currently, a Python script exists to do this.
I've got this code so far:
echo 'usr='. get_current_user().'<br/>';
$address='/root/.dropbox/iface_socket';
$socket=socket_create(AF_UNIX,SOCK_STREAM,0);
if(!socket_connect($socket,$address))
die('socket_connect '.socket_last_error().': '.socket_strerror(socket_last_error()));
The above works in that it does know what I want to do, but it fails with this error/output:
usr=root
socket_bind 13: Permission denied
It is interesting to note that both PHP and Dropboxd are running under the same user.
Note: I tried using PHP's fsockopen, but failed (something to do with "bad protocol"). Tried it again and this time round it works....till I get the same error below...
Edit: Again, I know running as root is bad, spare it, ok? :)
Edit 2: As I said earlier, PHP, Apache, Dropbox and this socket file are all under user "root", group "root".
However, if I run the socket under stat, I get the following:
[root#cov .dropbox]# stat iface_socket
File: `iface_socket'
Size: 0 Blocks: 0 IO Block: 4096 socket
Device: 7dh/125d Inode: 255754311 Links: 1
Access: (0600/srw-------) Uid: ( 0/ root) Gid: ( 0/ root)
Access: 2011-03-06 17:10:08.000000000 -0600
Modify: 2011-03-06 17:10:08.000000000 -0600
Change: 2011-03-06 17:10:08.000000000 -0600
Couldn't it be that all those -0600 is what is causing this issue? Note that if I chmod 0777 iface_socket, only the first line, (Access: (0600/srw-------)), changes; but not the other 3 underneath.
Edit 3: I was wondering, perhaps this topic would be better moved at unix/unix-like? At this point in time, it's not clear who's at fault in this issue.
Edit 4: Just ran the PHP script through strace like this:
strace php -nef /var/www/html/index.php
The relevant lines from output:
socket(PF_FILE, SOCK_STREAM, 0) = 3
fcntl(3, F_GETFL) = 0x2 (flags O_RDWR)
fcntl(3, F_SETFL, O_RDWR|O_NONBLOCK) = 0
connect(3, {sa_family=AF_FILE, path="/root/.dropbox/iface_socket"...}, 29) = 0
fcntl(3, F_SETFL, O_RDWR) = 0
close(3) = 0

Answer 1

In the rare case that Apache is running under the same user as Dropbox, I would just use the python command-line interface (Debian) /usr/bin/dropbox as you normally would from a terminal.
root#DevServer1:~# dropbox help
Dropbox command-line interface
commands:
Note: use dropbox help <command> to view usage for a specific command.
status get current status of the dropboxd
help provide help
puburl get public url of a file in your dropbox
stop stop dropboxd
running return whether dropbox is running
start start dropboxd
filestatus get current sync status of one or more files
ls list directory contents with current sync status
autostart automatically start dropbox at login
exclude ignores/excludes a directory from syncing
The fronted script can only effectively be used by the user that dropbox is running under. Everybody else should get a "Dropbox isn't running!" output. In your case you should be able to manipulate dropbox how you see fit from within PHP. Personally I run Dropbox as a restricted user other then my superuser. Using groups, you can safely link in folders at will and file permissions will be enforced.
<?php
$output = shell_exec('dropbox status');
echo "<pre>$output</pre>";
Dropbox isn't running!

Answer 2

A viable alternative.
try this instead:
<?php
$output = shell_exec("ps aux | grep '[d]ropbox'");
echo "<pre>$output</pre>";