Text2wave festival not working via nginx php exec

Question

I'm trying to run a shell command text2wave in PHP on a nginx server.

The problem is the command just exits silently without working as it should. It's also not displaying any errors.

Here's the code:

<?php
$result = `/usr/bin/text2wave --help`;
var_dump($result);

If I run the script via php command in shell ( as a normal user) it works as expected. However, If I run it via a http request through nginx the var_dump returns NULL ( there are also not logs in error log files)

Thanks for your help!

maybe because the php instance doesn't have permission to run the command, check the permissions and ownership of the executable `text2wave` — Mohammad AbuShady, Jul 17 '13 at 23:23
the permissions are -rwxr-xr-x. Same as the program festival which workes perfectly via nginx php — Tadej Magajna, Jul 18 '13 at 09:35
try to enable `ini_set('display_errors','on')` in the first line and see if it shows any thing. — Mohammad AbuShady, Jul 18 '13 at 14:34
try using `/usr/bin/text2wave --help 2>&1` and see if it shows any output. — Mohammad AbuShady, Jul 22 '13 at 13:45

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 03 '14 at 11:57

3

try:

<?php
function sys_cmd($cmd)
{   
    $hd = popen($cmd,"r") or die('function disabled');
    while (!feof($hd))
    {
        $rs .= fread($hd,1024);     
    }
    pclose($hd);
    return $rs;
}
echo sys_cmd('ls -l');
?>

answered Mar 03 '14 at 11:57

Anil R

289
1
6

the script works with 'ls -l', but not with 'text2wave --help' ( nor normal usage of text2wave of course) – Tadej Magajna Mar 03 '14 at 15:57

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 26 '13 at 14:08

0

My guess would be that you've got shell execution disabled in the php.ini configuration file used by your web server.

Try opening /etc/php5/fpm/php.ini file, finding the disable_functions directive, and making sure that none of the following functions are present in the value of the directive: shell_exec,exec,passthru,system

answered Jul 26 '13 at 14:08

Desmond Hume

8,037
14
65
112

Can you explain how that magically executes OP's `$result = '/usr/bin/text2wave --help';`? Look at it again — that's a (string) variable assignment, not a function. OP doesn't have to fix any configuration; instead, OP needs to correct his PHP code. – e-sushi Jul 26 '13 at 14:13
Oh, those are *"backticks"*! I thought those were formatting errors… (hits head against the wall) My bad; you're absolutely correct. Thanks for the heads-up. I've removed my incorrect answer accordingly. From my point of view, you'll get that bounty well deserved! On the other hand, looking at the fact that I didn't notice the difference between single-quotes and backticks, my *"view"* might not be the best to rely on. ;) – e-sushi Jul 26 '13 at 14:18
shell exec works. it doesn't work through nginx php running text2wave – Tadej Magajna Jul 27 '13 at 14:54

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 12 '14 at 21:38

To anybody haing the same problem... I've managed to find out what the problem was. Well.. kind of.

I've switched to apache and it started working right away. So the solution is not to use nginx

I guess it had something to do with the way nginx ran php when doing exec commands...

Although it was a hard decision, I found no other solution but to change to apache... works well now

Text2wave festival not working via nginx php exec

3 Answers3