Why doesn't shell-exec() run in PHP?

Question

I wanna run python code in PHP and the PHP code is bellow:

<?php
$command = escapeshellcmd('python3 /usr/C:/xampp/htdocs/scripts/a.py');
$output = shell_exec($command);
print $output;

But, when I run this PHP code, nothing happens in the screen!

How can I fix it?

`shell_exec()` is usually disabled of servers by web hosting providers. Are you sure is enabled? Also, can you add after ` — GasKa, Mar 15 '19 at 09:55
Are you sure the path is correct? Did you tried to execute the command in terminal? It works? — Cosmin, Mar 15 '19 at 09:55
@Parisa using `function_exists`: http://php.net/manual/en/function.function-exists.php — GasKa, Mar 15 '19 at 10:43
@GasKa I got this error: "Notice: Undefined variable: shell_exec in C:\xampp\htdocs\scripts\a.php on line 3" — Parisa Mousavi, Mar 15 '19 at 13:21

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 15 '19 at 10:04

If you say it works on the terminal and not on apache then apache's php.ini file may be disabling the use of shell_exec().

Your apache's php.ini file may look something like

disable_functions=exec,passthru,shell_exec,system,proc_open,popen

Remove shell_exec from this list and restart the web server, although this is a security risk and I don't recommend it.

Parisa Mousavi · Answer 2 · 2019-03-18T09:09:50.430

0

The problem wasn't because of disable_functions and the above code doesn't have any problem in Linux.

So, I think the problem is because of windows or the directory!

edited Mar 18 '19 at 09:09

answered Mar 16 '19 at 21:26

Parisa Mousavi

`shell_exec` should run on windows, more than likely the path is incorrect. See: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/13783649/shell-exec-with-windows-path-not-running – nickl- Mar 16 '19 at 21:54
Try running something simple like: `echo this is a test`. – nickl- Mar 16 '19 at 23:36
@nickl- There is no problem! I think the problem is with `shell_exec`! – Parisa Mousavi Mar 17 '19 at 07:37
Then we better fix it! What do you say... =) – nickl- Mar 17 '19 at 07:50
@nickl- What do you mean? – Parisa Mousavi Mar 17 '19 at 20:49
You said: the problem is with shell_exec. So I said: Then we better fix it! What do you say... =) If it's broke we fix it, that's what we do. Any idea what is wrong with it? – nickl- Mar 18 '19 at 00:09
@nickl- I tried many different things. But none of them gave me the right answer! – Parisa Mousavi Mar 18 '19 at 09:07
Edit your question and explain to us what you tried and what results you got. This will make it easier to assist you. `exec` is a different api method from `shell_exec` for executing shell commands, did you also try it. – nickl- Mar 19 '19 at 05:55

2 Answers2