HTML not showing characters

Question

I'm running lighttpd 1.4.35 on Debian 8.2. I have a very simple html file with php code (php5) which calls a bash script and prints the output:

<html>
<body>
<?php
    $res = shell_exec("/var/www/html/run.sh");
    echo $res . " is the result";
?>
</body>
</html>

If that html file is called on firefox, the output is

 is the result

If I directly run php with that file (php index.php), the output is

<html>
<body>
13.00
 is the result</body>
</html>

So, where does the result get lost?

edit: The webpage source code from firefox is

<html>
<body>

 is the result</body>
</html>

edit: solved. bash script uses '~' which expands to wrong directory when the script is run from webserver.

Try to run with `$res = shell_exec("sh /var/www/html/run.sh");` — Hardik Solanki, Dec 24 '15 at 11:26
Take a look here: http://stackoverflow.com/a/20109859/1973205 — Theraloss, Dec 24 '15 at 11:28
The exec functions "only" return the contents of stdout. Do you get an error message when you redirect stderr to stdout? `$res = shell_exec("/var/www/html/run.sh 2>&1");` — VolkerK, Dec 24 '15 at 11:28
@VolkerK - that's it, thanks. the shell script uses '~', which is expanded to correct directory when running the php directly in bash, but directs to the wrong directory when the webserver runs the script. stupid me ;) — user236012, Dec 24 '15 at 11:33

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:23

1

The exec functions "only" return the contents of stdout, which is why you might miss an error message.
But you can redirect stderr to stdout, e.g. via

$res = shell_exec("/var/www/html/run.sh 2>&1");

edited May 23 '17 at 12:23

Community

1
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answered Dec 24 '15 at 11:37

VolkerK

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score 0 · Answer 2 · edited Dec 24 '15 at 13:50

0

shell_exec does not run if you're in safe mode, that could be the issue

edited Dec 24 '15 at 13:50

jean

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answered Dec 24 '15 at 11:26

user5697101

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HTML not showing characters

2 Answers2