How to send commands to command prompt using php

Question

$exec = exec("net use LPT1: \\XXXXXX\PRINTER1 \\PERSISTENT:YES");
    $exec = exec("E:");
    $exec = exec("COPY OUT.TXT LPT1");

tried shell_exec

 $exec = shell_exec("net use LPT1: \\XXXXXX\PRINTER1 \\PERSISTENT:YES");
$exec = shell_exec("E:");
$exec = shell_exec("COPY OUT.TXT LPT1");

tried popen

 $exec = popen("net use LPT1: \\XXXXXX\PRINTER1 \\PERSISTENT:YES", "r");
$exec = popen("E:", "r");
$exec = popen("COPY OUT.TXT LPT1", "r");

I have tried all this in my code,but i am not able to execute it.. can anyone give a solution

Debug it. See what goes wrong. The user PHP runs at may not be able to execute those commands. Also use an absolute path when copying. — Pekka, Jul 11 '13 at 13:56
@Pekka웃 the commands works fine if i run through command prompt — dude, Jul 11 '13 at 13:57
Your point being...? That doesn't mean PHP can run the command as well. See the source code in the question here: [How can I debug exec() problems?](http://stackoverflow.com/q/12199353) for how to make error messages appear when `exec()`ing commands. They do not show up by default. — Pekka, Jul 11 '13 at 13:58
the user running the webserver probably doesn't have permission to do do `net use` — Orangepill, Jul 11 '13 at 13:59

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 10:25

2

exec() will not show you any error messages that your calls may produce.

To debug the problem, you need to make those messages visible. Stealing from this question:

exec('(your command here) 2>&1',$output,$return_val);
if($return_val !== 0) {
    echo 'Error<br>';
    print_r($output);   
}

Also, I'm not sure whether executing E: will actually change the working directory for the following command(s). You're probably better off using absolute paths:

 exec("COPY E:\OUT.TXT LPT1");

edited May 23 '17 at 10:25

Community

1
1

answered Jul 11 '13 at 14:01

Pekka

442,112
142
972
1,088

The example is above? You just need to insert your command where it says "your command here". – Pekka Jul 11 '13 at 14:32
whats the variable $output and $return_val refer to in the above example – dude Jul 11 '13 at 16:38
You can set them to any value beforehand, they are just used to contain the return values. You can do a `$output = null; $return_val = null;` in the line before so you don't get any warnings. – Pekka Jul 11 '13 at 19:10

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 11 '13 at 14:00

0

Every exec() (or other shell) call opens a shell and closes it again. You have to combine everything in a single exec() call, maybe with a batch script.

answered Jul 11 '13 at 14:00

Gerald Schneider

17,416
9
60
78

How to send commands to command prompt using php

2 Answers2