I've been trying to work out how to issue file system commands from a PHP
script to Redhat Linux. I want to be able to delete files and directories,
and copy files. I thought that using 'exec', 'system', or 'passthru' would
be the answer but although they don't produce errors (thereby indicating
that they work), the don't actually carry out the command. Can anyone
suggest how I should do it please?

Thanks
Trev

I'm sure that when you run the following code it will print 1, indicating
that an error occurred (replace somefile with a file that actually present
on your filesystem):

<?
    exec ("cp somefile anotherfile", $output, $result);
    print $result;
?>

Furthermore, it's more efficient to use native PHP functions instead of
passing system commands through the exec/passthru/etc functions.

Per example:

To delete a file, use unlink(); to remove a dir use rmdir(); to copy a file
use copy(). See the manual for more info about these functions.

What you should do is the following:

1. Create a sandbox directory which you chmod to 777
2. Use the suggested functions in this sandbox directory only
3. Start reading the manual (http://nl.php.net/manual/en/ref.filesystem.php)

HTH;
JW

 See the Filesystem Functions chapter of the PHP manual for details.

--
Andy Hassall / <a...@andyh.co.uk> / <http://www.andyh.co.uk>
<http://www.andyhsoftware.co.uk/space> Space: disk usage analysis tool

#! /bin/php
<?php

// calculate two days ago

$now = time();
$old = $now - (60*60*24*2);
echo "<hr>\n\nDelete old report files ",date("Y-m-d H:i:s"),"<br>\n";
echo "Using ", date("Y-m-d H:i:s",$old),"<br>\n";

// make a list of files in tmp

$dir = '/www/htdocs/admin/tmp/';
if ($handle = opendir($dir)) {
   while (false !== ($file = readdir($handle))) {
       if ($file == ".") continue;
       if ($file == "..") continue;
       $fname = $dir.$file;
       if (filemtime($fname) < $old):
          echo "deleting ",$fname,": ",date("Y-m-d
H:i:s",filemtime($fname)),"<br>\n";
        unlink($fname);   ;
          endif;
  }