<HTML ><HEAD ><TITLE >exec</TITLE ><META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet Version 1.44"><LINK REL="HOME" TITLE="PHP Manual" HREF="manual.html"><LINK REL="UP" TITLE="Program Execution functions" HREF="ref.exec.html"><LINK REL="PREVIOUS" TITLE="escapeshellcmd" HREF="function.escapeshellcmd.html"><LINK REL="NEXT" TITLE="passthru" HREF="function.passthru.html"></HEAD ><BODY BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#000000" LINK="#0000FF" VLINK="#840084" ALINK="#0000FF" ><DIV CLASS="NAVHEADER" ><TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" ><TR ><TH COLSPAN="3" ALIGN="center" >PHP Manual</TH ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="bottom" ><A HREF="function.escapeshellcmd.html" >Prev</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="80%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="bottom" ></TD ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="bottom" ><A HREF="function.passthru.html" >Next</A ></TD ></TR ></TABLE ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"></DIV ><H1 ><A NAME="function.exec" >exec</A ></H1 ><DIV CLASS="refnamediv" ><A NAME="AEN24462" ></A >exec -- Execute an external program</DIV ><DIV CLASS="refsect1" ><A NAME="AEN24465" ></A ><H2 >Description</H2 ><DIV CLASS="funcsynopsis" ><P ></P ><CODE CLASS="FUNCDEF" >string exec</CODE >(string command, string [<SPAN CLASS="optional" >array</SPAN >] , int [<SPAN CLASS="optional" >return_var</SPAN >] );<P ></P ></DIV ><P > <B CLASS="function" >exec()</B > executes the given <TT CLASS="parameter" ><I >command</I ></TT >, however it does not output anything. It simply returns the last line from the result of the command. If you need to execute a command and have all the data from the command passed directly back without any interference, use the <B CLASS="function" >PassThru()</B > function. </P ><P > If the <TT CLASS="parameter" ><I >array</I ></TT > argument is present, then the specified array will be filled with every line of output from the command. Note that if the array already contains some elements, <B CLASS="function" >exec()</B > will append to the end of the array. If you do not want the function to append elements, call <A HREF="function.unset.html" ><B CLASS="function" >unset()</B ></A > on the array before passing it to <B CLASS="function" >exec()</B >. </P ><P > If the <TT CLASS="parameter" ><I >return_var</I ></TT > argument is present along with the <TT CLASS="parameter" ><I >array</I ></TT > argument, then the return status of the executed command will be written to this variable. </P ><P > Note that if you are going to allow data coming from user input to be passed to this function, then you should be using <B CLASS="function" >EscapeShellCmd()</B > to make sure that users cannot trick the system into executing arbitrary commands. </P ><P > See also <A HREF="function.system.html" ><B CLASS="function" >system()</B ></A >, <B CLASS="function" >PassThru()</B >, <A HREF="function.popen.html" ><B CLASS="function" >popen()</B ></A >, <B CLASS="function" >EscapeShellCmd()</B >, and the <A HREF="language.operators.execution.html" >backtick operator</A >. </P ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="NAVFOOTER" ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"><TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="function.escapeshellcmd.html" >Prev</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="manual.html" >Home</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="function.passthru.html" >Next</A ></TD ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" >escapeshellcmd</TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="ref.exec.html" >Up</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" >passthru</TD ></TR ></TABLE ></DIV ></BODY ></HTML >