(PHP 4 >= 4.3.0, PHP 5)
proc_open — Execute a command and open file pointers for input/output
$cmd
, array $descriptorspec
, array &$pipes
[, string $cwd
[, array $env
[, array $other_options
]]] )proc_open() is similar to popen() but provides a much greater degree of control over the program execution.
cmd
The command to execute
descriptorspec
An indexed array where the key represents the descriptor number and the value represents how PHP will pass that descriptor to the child process. 0 is stdin, 1 is stdout, while 2 is stderr.
Each element can be:
STDIN
).
The file descriptor numbers are not limited to 0, 1 and 2 - you may specify any valid file descriptor number and it will be passed to the child process. This allows your script to interoperate with other scripts that run as "co-processes". In particular, this is useful for passing passphrases to programs like PGP, GPG and openssl in a more secure manner. It is also useful for reading status information provided by those programs on auxiliary file descriptors.
pipes
Will be set to an indexed array of file pointers that correspond to PHP's end of any pipes that are created.
cwd
The initial working dir for the command. This must be an
absolute directory path, or NULL
if you want to use the default value (the working dir of the current
PHP process)
env
An array with the environment variables for the command that will be
run, or NULL
to use the same environment as the current PHP process
other_options
Allows you to specify additional options. Currently supported options include:
TRUE
TRUE
Returns a resource representing the process, which should be freed using
proc_close() when you are finished with it. On failure
returns FALSE
.
Version | Description |
---|---|
5.2.1 |
Added the bypass_shell option to the
other_options parameter.
|
5.0.0 |
Added the cwd , env and
other_options parameters.
|
Example #1 A proc_open() example
<?php
$descriptorspec = array(
0 => array("pipe", "r"), // stdin is a pipe that the child will read from
1 => array("pipe", "w"), // stdout is a pipe that the child will write to
2 => array("file", "/tmp/error-output.txt", "a") // stderr is a file to write to
);
$cwd = '/tmp';
$env = array('some_option' => 'aeiou');
$process = proc_open('php', $descriptorspec, $pipes, $cwd, $env);
if (is_resource($process)) {
// $pipes now looks like this:
// 0 => writeable handle connected to child stdin
// 1 => readable handle connected to child stdout
// Any error output will be appended to /tmp/error-output.txt
fwrite($pipes[0], '<?php print_r($_ENV); ?>');
fclose($pipes[0]);
echo stream_get_contents($pipes[1]);
fclose($pipes[1]);
// It is important that you close any pipes before calling
// proc_close in order to avoid a deadlock
$return_value = proc_close($process);
echo "command returned $return_value\n";
}
?>
The above example will output something similar to:
Array ( [some_option] => aeiou [PWD] => /tmp [SHLVL] => 1 [_] => /usr/local/bin/php ) command returned 0
Note:
Windows compatibility: Descriptors beyond 2 (stderr) are made available to the child process as inheritable handles, but since the Windows architecture does not associate file descriptor numbers with low-level handles, the child process does not (yet) have a means of accessing those handles. Stdin, stdout and stderr work as expected.
Note:
If you only need a uni-directional (one-way) process pipe, use popen() instead, as it is much easier to use.