Running a linux command to output to text file through PHP

Question

I was trying to get the following linux command to work using PHP. I read about the shell_exec command in PHP, that can be used to execute shell commands.

I am trying to output some simple text to a text file. I tried the following:

<?php
    $cmd = 'echo "hi" > Desktop/test/output.txt';
    shell_exec($cmd);
?>

Please note that, I am running this on Ubuntu 16.04. I have also made the www-data the owner of the Desktop/test folder so that it can write to it. The following is the command I used for that:

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data Desktop/test

When I execute the above command, directly in a shell I can see an output.txt file created with the string output.

However, when I execute the php script through apache web server, I cannot see the output.txt file being created.

Glad if you can point me towards the right direction.

Thanks

Try getting the output of the command to see if there is any error — Jerodev
– Jerodev, Commented Aug 1, 2017 at 9:05
try use absolute path: /home/yourUserName/Desktop/test/output.txt — Jared Chu
– Jared Chu, Commented Aug 1, 2017 at 9:06

betaros · Accepted Answer · 2017-08-01 09:21:27Z

1

As I said in the comment: you should use an absolute path.

<?php
    $cmd = 'echo "hi" > /home/username/Desktop/test/output.txt';
    shell_exec($cmd);
?>

answered Aug 1, 2017 at 9:21

betaros

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1 Comment

terry96 Over a year ago

Thanks! This was a bit weird how the command worked without absolute path directly on the shell, but not through PHP.

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