proc_open

(PHP 4 >= 4.3.0, PHP 5, PHP 7, PHP 8)

proc_open Führt ein Kommando aus und öffnet Dateizeiger für die Ein- und Ausgabe

Beschreibung

proc_open(
    array|string $command,
    array $descriptor_spec,
    array &$pipes,
    ?string $cwd = null,
    ?array $env_vars = null,
    ?array $options = null
): resource|false

proc_open() ist äquivalent zu popen(), ermöglicht aber einen höheren Grad von Kontrolle über die Programmausführung.

Parameter-Liste

command

Das auszuführende Kommandozeile als String. Sonderzeichen müssen ordnungsgemäß maskiert und Argumente ggf. in Anführungszeichen eingeschlossen werden.

Hinweis: Unter Windows wird, falls bypass_shell in options nicht auf true gesetzt ist, das command mit dem Flag /c als nicht in Anführungszeichen eingeschlossene Zeichenkette (d. h. genau wie an proc_open() übergeben) an cmd.exe übergeben (genauer gesagt an %ComSpec%). Dies kann dazu führen, dass cmd.exe die umschließenden Anführungszeichen von command entfernt (Details sind der Dokumentation von cmd.exe zu entnehmen), was zu unerwartetem und potentiell sogar gefährlichem Verhalten führen kann, da Fehlermeldungen von cmd.exe das übergebene command oder Teile davon enthalten können (siehe Beispiel weiter unten).

Von PHP 7.4.0 an kann command als Array von Befehlsparametern übergeben werden. In diesem Fall wird der Prozess direkt gestartet (ohne Umweg über die Shell) und PHP kümmert sich um das nötige Maskieren der Argumente.

Hinweis:

Unter Windows erfolgt die Argumentenmaskierung der Array-Elemente unter der Annahme, dass das Parsen der Kommandozeile des auszuführenden Kommandos kompatibel ist mit dem Parsen der Kommandozeile durch die VC-Laufzeitumgebung.

descriptor_spec

Ein indexiertes Array, in dem die Schlüssel die Descriptornummer repräsentieren und die Werte die Art und Weise, in der PHP die Descriptoren an die Child-Prozesse übergibt. 0 steht dabei für stdin, 1 für stdout und 2 für stderr.

Jedes Element kann sein:

  • Ein Array, das die Pipe beschreibt, die an den Prozess übergeben wird. Das erste Element ist der Descriptortyp, das zweite Element ist eine Option für den angegebenen Typ. Gültige Typen sind pipe (das zweite Element ist entweder r, um das Ende des Leseprozesses der Pipe an den Prozess zu übergeben, oder w, um das Ende des Schreibprozesses zu übergeben) und file (das zweite Element ist ein Dateiname). Es ist zu beachten, dass alles außer w wie r behandelt wird.
  • Eine Streamressource, die einen echten Filedescriptor repräsentiert (z. B. geöffnete Dateien, Sockets, STDIN).

Die Filedescriptor-Nummern sind nicht limitiert auf 0, 1 und 2 - Sie können jede gültige Filedescriptor-Nummer angeben, die an den Kindprozess übergeben wird. Dies erlaubt es Ihrem Skript, mit anderen Skripten zu interagieren, die als "Co-Prozesse" laufen. Dies ist insbesondere dann nützlich, wenn Passwörter auf sichere Weise an Programme wie PGP, GPG und openssl übergeben werden sollen. Es ist ebenfalls nützlich, um Lesestatus-Informationen zu erhalten, die von diesen Programmen für zusätzliche Filedescriptoren ermittelt werden.

pipes

Enthält ein numerisches Array von Dateizeigern, die der PHP-Seite jeder erstellten Pipe entsprechen.

cwd

Das initiale Arbeitsverzeichnis des Kommandos. Dies muss ein absoluter Pfadname sein. Wenn Sie den Standardwert verwenden möchten (dies wäre das Arbeitsverzeichnis des aktuellen PHP-Prozesses), muss der Wert null sein.

env_vars

Ein Array mit den Umgebungsvariablen für das auszuführende Kommando, oder null, wenn Sie die gleiche Umgebung wie der aktuelle PHP-Prozess nutzen wollen.

options

Erlaubt Ihnen, zusätzliche Optionen anzugeben. Derzeit unterstützte Optionen sind:

  • suppress_errors (nur unter Windows): Unterdrückt Fehlermeldungen, die durch diese Funktion hervorgerufen werden, sofern der Wert auf true gesetzt wurde.
  • bypass_shell (nur unter Windows): umgeht die cmd.exe-Shell, wenn der Wert auf true gesetzt wurde.
  • blocking_pipes (nur unter Windows): erzwingt blockierende Pipes, wenn der Wert auf true gesetzt wurde.
  • create_process_group (nur unter Windows): ermöglicht dem Kindprozess CTRL Ereignisse zu behandeln, wenn der Wert auf true gesetzt wurde.
  • create_new_console (nur unter Windows): der neue Prozess hat eine neue Konsole anstatt die Konsole des Elternprozesses zu erben

Rückgabewerte

Gibt eine Ressource zurück, die den Prozess repräsentiert, der unter Verwendung von proc_close() freigegeben werden soll, wenn Sie ihn beenden. Im Fehlerfall wird false zurückgegeben.

Changelog

Version Beschreibung
7.4.4 Die Option create_new_console wurde dem Parameter options hinzugefügt.
7.4.0 proc_open() akzeptiert nun ebenfalls ein Array für das command.
7.4.0 Die Option create_process_group wurde dem Parameter options hinzugefügt.

Beispiele

Beispiel #1 Ein proc_open()-Beispiel

<?php
$descriptorspec
= array(
0 => array("pipe", "r"), // stdin ist eine Pipe, von der das Child liest
1 => array("pipe", "w"), // stdout ist eine Pipe, in die das Child schreibt
2 => array("file", "/tmp/error-output.txt", "a") // stderr ist eine Datei,
// in die geschrieben wird
);

$cwd = '/tmp';
$env = array('some_option' => 'aeiou');

$process = proc_open('php', $descriptorspec, $pipes, $cwd, $env);

if (
is_resource($process)) {
// $pipes sieht nun so aus:
// 0 => Schreibhandle, das auf das Child stdin verbunden ist
// 1 => Lesehandle, das auf das Child stdout verbunden ist
// Jedwede Fehlerausgabe wird an /tmp/error-output.txt angefügt

fwrite($pipes[0], '<?php print_r($_ENV); ?>');
fclose($pipes[0]);

echo
stream_get_contents($pipes[1]);
fclose($pipes[1]);

// Es ist wichtig, dass Sie alle Pipes schließen, bevor Sie
// proc_close aufrufen, um Deadlocks zu vermeiden
$return_value = proc_close($process);

echo
"Rückgabewert des Kommandos: $return_value\n";
}
?>

Das oben gezeigte Beispiel erzeugt eine ähnliche Ausgabe wie:

Array
(
    [some_option] => aeiou
    [PWD] => /tmp
    [SHLVL] => 1
    [_] => /usr/local/bin/php
)
Rückgabewert des Kommandos: 0

Beispiel #2 proc_open()-Eigenheit unter Windows

Während man erwarten könnte, dass das folgende Program die Datei filename.txt nach dem Text suche durchsucht und die Ergebnisse ausgibt, verhält es sich ganz anders.

<?php
$descriptorspec
= [STDIN, STDOUT, STDOUT];
$cmd = '"findstr" "suche" "filename.txt"';
$proc = proc_open($cmd, $descriptorspec, $pipes);
proc_close($proc);
?>

Das oben gezeigte Beispiel erzeugt folgende Ausgabe:

Der Befehl "findstr" "suche" "filename.txt" ist entweder falsch geschrieben oder
konnte nicht gefunden werden.

Um dieses Verhalten zu vermeiden, ist es üblicherweise ausreichend das command in zusätzliche Anführungszeichen einzuschließen:

$cmd = '""findstr" "suche" "filename.txt""';

Anmerkungen

Hinweis:

Windows-Kompatibilität: Descriptoren höher 2 (stderr) sind Childprozessen als vererbbare Handles verfügbar, aber da die Windows-Architektur die Nummern der Filedescriptoren nicht mit Low-Level-Handles verbindet, hat der Kindprozess (bis jetzt) keine Möglichkeit, diese Handles anzusprechen. Stdin, stdout und stderr funktionieren wie erwartet.

Hinweis:

Wenn Sie nur eine unidirektionale (Einweg-) Prozesspipe benötigen, nutzen Sie besser popen(), da diese Funktion leichter zu verwenden ist.

Siehe auch

  • popen() - Öffnet einen Dateizeiger für einen Prozess
  • exec() - Führt ein externes Programm aus
  • system() - Führt ein externes Programm aus und zeigt dessen Ausgabe an
  • passthru() - Führt ein externes Programm aus und zeigt dessen Ausgabe an
  • stream_select() - Runs the equivalent of the select() system call on the given arrays of streams with a timeout specified by seconds and microseconds
  • Der Backtick-Operator

add a note add a note

User Contributed Notes 35 notes

up
26
devel at romanr dot info
12 years ago
The call works as should. No bugs.
But. In most cases you won't able to work with pipes in blocking mode.
When your output pipe (process' input one, $pipes[0]) is blocking, there is a case, when you and the process are blocked on output.
When your input pipe (process' output one, $pipes[1]) is blocking, there is a case, when you and the process both are blocked on own input.
So you should switch pipes into NONBLOCKING mode (stream_set_blocking).
Then, there is a case, when you're not able to read anything (fread($pipes[1],...) == "") either write (fwrite($pipes[0],...) == 0). In this case, you better check the process is alive (proc_get_status) and if it still is - wait for some time (stream_select). The situation is truly asynchronous, the process may be busy working, processing your data.
Using shell effectively makes not possible to know whether the command is exists - proc_open always returns valid resource. You may even write some data into it (into shell, actually). But eventually it will terminate, so check the process status regularly.
I would advice not using mkfifo-pipes, because filesystem fifo-pipe (mkfifo) blocks open/fopen call (!!!) until somebody opens other side (unix-related behavior). In case the pipe is opened not by shell and the command is crashed or is not exists you will be blocked forever.
up
14
simeonl at dbc dot co dot nz
15 years ago
Note that when you call an external script and retrieve large amounts of data from STDOUT and STDERR, you may need to retrieve from both alternately in non-blocking mode (with appropriate pauses if no data is retrieved), so that your PHP script doesn't lock up. This can happen if you waiting on activity on one pipe while the external script is waiting for you to empty the other, e.g:

<?php
$read_output
= $read_error = false;
$buffer_len  = $prev_buffer_len = 0;
$ms          = 10;
$output      = '';
$read_output = true;
$error       = '';
$read_error  = true;
stream_set_blocking($pipes[1], 0);
stream_set_blocking($pipes[2], 0);

// dual reading of STDOUT and STDERR stops one full pipe blocking the other, because the external script is waiting
while ($read_error != false or $read_output != false)
{
    if (
$read_output != false)
    {
        if(
feof($pipes[1]))
        {
           
fclose($pipes[1]);
           
$read_output = false;
        }
        else
        {
           
$str = fgets($pipes[1], 1024);
           
$len = strlen($str);
            if (
$len)
            {
               
$output .= $str;
               
$buffer_len += $len;
            }
        }
    }
   
    if (
$read_error != false)
    {
        if(
feof($pipes[2]))
        {
           
fclose($pipes[2]);
           
$read_error = false;
        }
        else
        {
           
$str = fgets($pipes[2], 1024);
           
$len = strlen($str);
            if (
$len)
            {
               
$error .= $str;
               
$buffer_len += $len;
            }
        }
    }
   
    if (
$buffer_len > $prev_buffer_len)
    {
       
$prev_buffer_len = $buffer_len;
       
$ms = 10;
    }
    else
    {
       
usleep($ms * 1000); // sleep for $ms milliseconds
       
if ($ms < 160)
        {
           
$ms = $ms * 2;
        }
    }
}
       
return
proc_close($process);
?>
up
20
php at keith tyler dot com
13 years ago
Interestingly enough, it seems you actually have to store the return value in order for your streams to exist. You can't throw it away.

In other words, this works:

<?php
$proc
=proc_open("echo foo",
  array(
    array(
"pipe","r"),
    array(
"pipe","w"),
    array(
"pipe","w")
  ),
 
$pipes);
print
stream_get_contents($pipes[1]);
?>

prints:
foo

but this doesn't work:

<?php
proc_open
("echo foo",
  array(
    array(
"pipe","r"),
    array(
"pipe","w"),
    array(
"pipe","w")
  ),
 
$pipes);
print
stream_get_contents($pipes[1]);
?>

outputs:
Warning: stream_get_contents(): <n> is not a valid stream resource in Command line code on line 1

The only difference is that in the second case we don't save the output of proc_open to a variable.
up
8
mattis at xait dot no
13 years ago
If you are, like me, tired of the buggy way proc_open handles streams and exit codes; this example demonstrate the power of pcntl, posix and some simple output redirection:

<?php
$outpipe
= '/tmp/outpipe';
$inpipe = '/tmp/inpipe';
posix_mkfifo($inpipe, 0600);
posix_mkfifo($outpipe, 0600);

$pid = pcntl_fork();

//parent
if($pid) {
   
$in = fopen($inpipe, 'w');
   
fwrite($in, "A message for the inpipe reader\n");
   
fclose($in);
   
   
$out = fopen($outpipe, 'r');
    while(!
feof($out)) {
        echo
"From out pipe: " . fgets($out) . PHP_EOL;
    }
   
fclose($out);

   
pcntl_waitpid($pid, $status);
   
    if(
pcntl_wifexited($status)) {
        echo
"Reliable exit code: " . pcntl_wexitstatus($status) . PHP_EOL;
    }
   
   
unlink($outpipe);
   
unlink($inpipe);
}

//child
else {
   
//parent
   
if($pid = pcntl_fork()) {
       
pcntl_exec('/bin/sh', array('-c', "printf 'A message for the outpipe reader' > $outpipe 2>&1 && exit 12"));
    }
   
   
//child
   
else {
       
pcntl_exec('/bin/sh', array('-c', "printf 'From in pipe: '; cat $inpipe"));
    }   
}
?>

Output:

From in pipe: A message for the inpipe reader
From out pipe: A message for the outpipe reader
Reliable exit code: 12
up
8
aaronw at catalyst dot net dot nz
8 years ago
If you have a CLI script that prompts you for a password via STDIN, and you need to run it from PHP, proc_open() can get you there. It's better than doing "echo $password | command.sh", because then your password will be visible in the process list to any user who runs "ps". Alternately you could print the password to a file and use cat: "cat passwordfile.txt | command.sh", but then you've got to manage that file in a secure manner.

If your command will always prompt you for responses in a specific order, then proc_open() is quite simple to use and you don't really have to worry about blocking & non-blocking streams. For instance, to run the "passwd" command:

<?php
$descriptorspec
= array(
  
0 => array("pipe", "r"),
  
1 => array("pipe", "w"),
  
2 => array("pipe", "w")
);
$process = proc_open(
       
'/usr/bin/passwd ' . escapeshellarg($username),
       
$descriptorspec,
       
$pipes
);

// It wil prompt for existing password, then new password twice.
// You don't need to escapeshellarg() these, but you should whitelist
// them to guard against control characters, perhaps by using ctype_print()
fwrite($pipes[0], "$oldpassword\n$newpassword\n$newpassword\n");

// Read the responses if you want to look at them
$stdout = fread($pipes[1], 1024);
$stderr = fread($pipes[2], 1024);

fclose($pipes[0]);
fclose($pipes[1]);
fclose($pipes[2]);
$exit_status = proc_close($process);

// It returns 0 on successful password change
$success = ($exit_status === 0);
?>
up
12
chris AT w3style DOT co.uk
16 years ago
It took me a long time (and three consecutive projects) to figure this out.  Because popen() and proc_open() return valid processes even when the command failed it's awkward to determine when it really has failed if you're opening a non-interactive process like "sendmail -t".

I had previously guess that reading from STDERR immediately after starting the process would work, and it does... but when the command is successful PHP just hangs because STDERR is empty and it's waiting for data to be written to it.

The solution is a simple stream_set_blocking($pipes[2], 0) immediately after calling proc_open().

<?php

    $this
->_proc = proc_open($command, $descriptorSpec, $pipes);
   
stream_set_blocking($pipes[2], 0);
    if (
$err = stream_get_contents($pipes[2]))
    {
      throw new
Swift_Transport_TransportException(
       
'Process could not be started [' . $err . ']'
       
);
    }

?>

If the process is opened successfully $pipes[2] will be empty, but if it failed the bash/sh error will be in it.

Finally I can drop all my "workaround" error checking.

I realise this solution is obvious and I'm not sure how it took me 18 months to figure it out, but hopefully this will help someone else.

NOTE: Make sure your descriptorSpec has ( 2 => array('pipe', 'w')) for this to work.
up
6
michael dot gross at NOSPAM dot flexlogic dot at
11 years ago
Please note that if you plan to spawn multiple processes you have to save all the results in different variables (in an array for example). If you for example would call $proc = proc_open..... multiple times the script will block after the second time until the child process exits (proc_close is called implicitly).
up
4
ralf at dreesen[*NO*SPAM*] dot net
20 years ago
The behaviour described in the following may depend on the system php runs on. Our platform was "Intel with Debian 3.0 linux".

If you pass huge amounts of data (ca. >>10k) to the application you run and the application for example echos them directly to stdout (without buffering the input), you will get a deadlock. This is because there are size-limited buffers (so called pipes) between php and the application you run. The application will put data into the stdout buffer until it is filled, then it blocks waiting for php to read from the stdout buffer. In the meantime Php filled the stdin buffer and waits for the application to read from it. That is the deadlock.

A solution to this problem may be to set the stdout stream to non blocking (stream_set_blocking) and alternately write to stdin and read from stdout.

Just imagine the following example:

<?
/* assume that strlen($in) is about 30k
*/

$descriptorspec = array(
   0 => array("pipe", "r"),
   1 => array("pipe", "w"),
   2 => array("file", "/tmp/error-output.txt", "a")
);

$process = proc_open("cat", $descriptorspec, $pipes);

if (is_resource($process)) {

   fwrite($pipes[0], $in);
    /* fwrite writes to stdin, 'cat' will immediately write the data from stdin
    * to stdout and blocks, when the stdout buffer is full. Then it will not
    * continue reading from stdin and php will block here.
    */

   fclose($pipes[0]);

   while (!feof($pipes[1])) {
       $out .= fgets($pipes[1], 1024);
   }
   fclose($pipes[1]);

   $return_value = proc_close($process);
}
?>
up
6
daniela at itconnect dot net dot au
20 years ago
Just a small note in case it isn't obvious, its possible to treat the filename as in fopen, thus you can pass through the standard input from php like
    $descs = array (
                0 => array ("file", "php://stdin", "r"),
                1 => array ("pipe", "w"),
                2 => array ("pipe", "w")
        );
        $proc = proc_open ("myprogram", $descs, $fp);
up
9
Luceo
13 years ago
It seems that stream_get_contents() on STDOUT blocks infinitly under Windows when STDERR is filled under some circumstances.

The trick is to open STDERR in append mode ("a"), then this will work, too.

<?php
$descriptorspec
= array(
   
0 => array('pipe', 'r'), // stdin
   
1 => array('pipe', 'w'), // stdout
   
2 => array('pipe', 'a') // stderr
);
?>
up
5
mcuadros at gmail dot com
10 years ago
This is a example of how run a command using as output the TTY, just like crontab -e or git commit does.

<?php

$descriptors
= array(
        array(
'file', '/dev/tty', 'r'),
        array(
'file', '/dev/tty', 'w'),
        array(
'file', '/dev/tty', 'w')
);

$process = proc_open('vim', $descriptors, $pipes);
up
4
Kyle Gibson
18 years ago
proc_open is hard coded to use "/bin/sh". So if you're working in a chrooted environment, you need to make sure that /bin/sh exists, for now.
up
2
bilge at boontex dot com
11 years ago
$cmd can actually be multiple commands by separating each command with a newline. However, due to this it is not possible to split up one very long command over multiple lines, even when using "\\\n" syntax.
up
2
andrew dot budd at adsciengineering dot com
18 years ago
The pty option is actually disabled in the source for some reason via a #if 0 && condition.  I'm not sure why it's disabled.  I removed the 0 && and recompiled, after which the pty option works perfectly.  Just a note.
up
3
exel at example dot com
10 years ago
pipe communications may break brains off. i want to share some stuff to avoid such result.
for proper control of the communications through the "in" and "out" pipes of the opened sub-process, remember to set both of them into non-blocking mode and especially notice that fwrite may return (int)0 but it's not an error, just process might not except input at that moment.

so, let us consider an example of decoding gz-encoded file by using funzip as sub-process: (this is not the final version, just to show important things)

<?php
           
// make gz file
           
$fd=fopen("/tmp/testPipe", "w");
            for(
$i=0;$i<100000;$i++)
               
fwrite($fd, md5($i)."\n");
           
fclose($fd);

            if(
is_file("/tmp/testPipe.gz"))
               
unlink("/tmp/testPipe.gz");
           
system("gzip /tmp/testPipe");

           
// open process
           
$pipesDescr=array(
               
0 => array("pipe", "r"),
               
1 => array("pipe", "w"),
               
2 => array("file", "/tmp/testPipe.log", "a"),
            );

           
$process=proc_open("zcat", $pipesDescr, $pipes);
            if(!
is_resource($process)) throw new Exception("popen error");

           
// set both pipes non-blocking
           
stream_set_blocking($pipes[0], 0);
           
stream_set_blocking($pipes[1], 0);

           
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

           
$text="";
           
$fd=fopen("/tmp/testPipe.gz", "r");
            while(!
feof($fd))
            {
               
$str=fread($fd, 16384*4);
               
$try=3;
                while(
$str)
                {
                   
$len=fwrite($pipes[0], $str);
                    while(
$s=fread($pipes[1], 16384*4))
                       
$text.=$s;

                    if(!
$len)
                    {
                       
// if yo remove this paused retries, process may fail
                       
usleep(200000);
                       
$try--;
                        if(!
$try)
                            throw new
Exception("fwrite error");
                    }
                   
$str=substr($str, $len);
                }
                echo
strlen($text)."\n";
            }
           
fclose($fd);
           
fclose($pipes[0]);

           
// reading the rest of output stream
           
stream_set_blocking($pipes[1], 1);
            while(!
feof($pipes[1]))
            {
               
$s=fread($pipes[1], 16384);
               
$text.=$s;
            }

            echo
strlen($text)." / 3 300 000\n";
?>
up
4
Anonymous
16 years ago
I needed to emulate a tty for a process (it wouldnt write to stdout or read from stdin), so I found this:

<?php
$descriptorspec
= array(0 => array('pty'),
                       
1 => array('pty'),
                       
2 => array('pty')); 
?>

pipes are bidirectional then
up
3
php dot net_manual at reimwerker dot de
17 years ago
If you are going to allow data coming from user input to be passed to this function, then you should keep in mind the following warning that also applies to exec() and system():

http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.exec.php
http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.system.php

Warning:

If you are going to allow data coming from user input to be passed to this function, then you should be using escapeshellarg() or escapeshellcmd() to make sure that users cannot trick the system into executing arbitrary commands.
up
2
stevebaldwin21 at googlemail dot com
8 years ago
For those who are finding that using the $cwd and $env options cause proc_open to fail (windows). You will need to pass all other server environment variables;

$descriptorSpec = array(
       0 => array("pipe", "r"),
       1 => array("pipe", "w"),    
    );

proc_open(
        "C:\\Windows\\System32\\PING.exe localhost,
        $descriptorSpec ,
        $pipes,
        "C:\\Windows\\System32",
        array($_SERVER)
);
up
2
hablutzel1 at gmail dot com
8 years ago
Note that the usage of "bypass_shell" in Windows allows you to pass a command of length around ~32767 characters. If you do not use it, your limit is around ~8191 characters only.

See https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/830473.
up
3
John Wehin
16 years ago
STDIN STDOUT example
test.php

<?php
$descriptorspec
= array(
  
0 => array("pipe", "r"),
  
1 => array("pipe", "w"),
  
2 => array("pipe", "r")
);
$process = proc_open('php test_gen.php', $descriptorspec, $pipes, null, null); //run test_gen.php
echo ("Start process:\n");
if (
is_resource($process))
{
   
fwrite($pipes[0], "start\n");    // send start
   
echo ("\n\nStart ....".fgets($pipes[1],4096)); //get answer
   
fwrite($pipes[0], "get\n");    // send get
   
echo ("Get: ".fgets($pipes[1],4096));    //get answer
   
fwrite($pipes[0], "stop\n");    //send stop
   
echo ("\n\nStop ....".fgets($pipes[1],4096));  //get answer

   
fclose($pipes[0]);
   
fclose($pipes[1]);
   
fclose($pipes[2]);
   
$return_value = proc_close($process);  //stop test_gen.php
   
echo ("Returned:".$return_value."\n");
}
?>

test_gen.php
<?php
$keys
=0;
function
play_stop()
{
global
$keys;
       
$stdin_stat_arr=fstat(STDIN);
        if(
$stdin_stat_arr[size]!=0)
        {
           
$val_in=fread(STDIN,4096);
            switch(
$val_in)
            {
            case
"start\n":    echo "Started\n";
                    return
false;
                    break;
            case
"stop\n":    echo "Stopped\n";
                   
$keys=0;
                    return
false;
                    break;
            case
"pause\n":    echo "Paused\n";
                    return
false;
                    break;
            case
"get\n":    echo ($keys."\n");
                    return
true;
                    break;
            default:    echo(
"Передан не верный параметр: ".$val_in."\n");
                    return
true;
                    exit();
            }
        }else{return
true;}
}
while(
true)
{
while(
play_stop()){usleep(1000);}
while(
play_stop()){$keys++;usleep(10);}
}
?>
up
1
stoller at leonex dot de
7 years ago
If you are working on Windows and try to proc_open an executable that contains spaces in its path, you will get into trouble.

But there's a workaround which works quite well. I have found it here: http://stackoverflow.com/a/4410389/1119601

For example, if you want to execute "C:\Program Files\nodejs\node.exe", you will get the error that the command could not be found.
Try this:
<?php
$cmd
= 'C:\\Program Files\\nodejs\\node.exe';
if (
strtolower(substr(PHP_OS,0,3)) === 'win') {
   
$cmd = sprintf('cd %s && %s', escapeshellarg(dirname($cmd)), basename($cmd));
}
?>
up
1
joachimb at gmail dot com
15 years ago
I'm confused by the direction of the pipes. Most of the examples in this documentation opens pipe #2 as "r", because they want to read from stderr. That sounds logical to me, and that's what I tried to do. That didn't work, though. When I changed it to w, as in
<?php
        $descriptorspec
= array(
          
0 => array("pipe", "r"), // stdin
          
1 => array("pipe", "w"), // stdout
          
2 => array("pipe", "w") // stderr
       
);
       
       
$process = proc_open(escapeshellarg($scriptFile), $descriptorspec, $pipes, $this->wd);
...
        while (!
feof($pipes[1])) {
            foreach(
$pipes as $key =>$pipe) {
               
$line = fread($pipe, 128);
                if(
$line) {
                    print(
$line);
                   
$this->log($line);
                }
            }
           
sleep(0.5);
        }
...
?>

everything works fine.
up
1
Kevin Barr
18 years ago
I found that with disabling stream blocking I was sometimes attempting to read a return line before the external application had responded. So, instead, I left blocking alone and used this simple function to add a timeout to the fgets function:

// fgetsPending( $in,$tv_sec ) - Get a pending line of data from stream $in, waiting a maximum of $tv_sec seconds
function fgetsPending(&$in,$tv_sec=10) {
    if ( stream_select($read = array($in),$write=NULL,$except=NULL,$tv_sec) ) return fgets($in);
    else return FALSE;   
}
up
1
MagicalTux at FF.ST
20 years ago
Note that if you need to be "interactive" with the user *and* the opened application, you can use stream_select to see if something is waiting on the other side of the pipe.

Stream functions can be used on pipes like :
- pipes from popen, proc_open
- pipes from fopen('php://stdin') (or stdout)
- sockets (unix or tcp/udp)
- many other things probably but the most important is here

More informations about streams (you'll find many useful functions there) :
http://www.php.net/manual/en/ref.stream.php
up
1
radone at gmail dot com
15 years ago
To complete the examples below that use proc_open to encrypt a string using GPG, here is a decrypt function:

<?php
function gpg_decrypt($string, $secret) {
   
$homedir = ''; // path to you gpg keyrings
   
$tmp_file = '/tmp/gpg_tmp.asc' ; // tmp file to write to       
   
file_put_contents($tmp_file, $string);

   
$text = '';
   
$error = '';
   
$descriptorspec = array(
       
0 => array("pipe", "r"),  // stdin
       
1 => array("pipe", "w"),  // stdout
       
2 => array("pipe", "w")   // stderr ?? instead of a file
       
);
   
$command = 'gpg --homedir ' . $homedir . ' --batch --no-verbose --passphrase-fd 0 -d ' . $tmp_file . ' ';
   
$process = proc_open($command, $descriptorspec, $pipes);
    if (
is_resource($process)) {
       
fwrite($pipes[0], $secret);
       
fclose($pipes[0]);
        while(
$s= fgets($pipes[1], 1024)) {
         
// read from the pipe
         
$text .= $s;
        }
       
fclose($pipes[1]);
       
// optional:
       
while($s= fgets($pipes[2], 1024)) {
         
$error .= $s . "\n";
        }
       
fclose($pipes[2]);
    }
           
   
file_put_contents($tmp_file, '');
   
    if (
preg_match('/decryption failed/i', $error)) {
        return
false;
    } else {
        return
$text;
    }
}
?>
up
1
Matou Havlena - matous at havlena dot net
13 years ago
There is some smart object Processes Manager which i have created for my application. It can control the maximum of simultaneously running processes.

Proccesmanager class:
<?php
class Processmanager {
    public
$executable = "C:\\www\\_PHP5_2_10\\php";
    public
$root = "C:\\www\\parallelprocesses\\";
    public
$scripts = array();
    public
$processesRunning = 0;
    public
$processes = 3;
    public
$running = array();
    public
$sleep_time = 2;
   
    function
addScript($script, $max_execution_time = 300) {
       
$this->scripts[] = array("script_name" => $script,
                           
"max_execution_time" => $max_execution_time);
    }
   
    function
exec() {
       
$i = 0;
        for(;;) {
       
// Fill up the slots
       
while (($this->processesRunning<$this->processes) and ($i<count($this->scripts))) {
        echo
"<span style='color: orange;'>Adding script: ".$this->scripts[$i]["script_name"]."</span><br />";
       
ob_flush();
       
flush();
       
$this->running[] =& new Process($this->executable, $this->root, $this->scripts[$i]["script_name"], $this->scripts[$i]["max_execution_time"]);
       
$this->processesRunning++;
       
$i++;
        }
       
       
// Check if done
       
if (($this->processesRunning==0) and ($i>=count($this->scripts))) {
            break;
        }
       
// sleep, this duration depends on your script execution time, the longer execution time, the longer sleep time
     
sleep($this->sleep_time);
     
     
// check what is done
       
foreach ($this->running as $key => $val) {
                if (!
$val->isRunning() or $val->isOverExecuted()) {
            if (!
$val->isRunning()) echo "<span style='color: green;'>Done: ".$val->script."</span><br />";
            else echo
"<span style='color: red;'>Killed: ".$val->script."</span><br />";
                   
proc_close($val->resource);
                    unset(
$this->running[$key]);
                   
$this->processesRunning--;
           
ob_flush();
           
flush();
                }
            }
        }
    }
}
?>

Process class:
<?php
class Process {
    public
$resource;
    public
$pipes;
    public
$script;
    public
$max_execution_time;
    public
$start_time;
   
    function
__construct(&$executable, &$root, $script, $max_execution_time) {
       
$this->script = $script;
       
$this->max_execution_time = $max_execution_time;
       
$descriptorspec    = array(
           
0 => array('pipe', 'r'),
           
1 => array('pipe', 'w'),
           
2 => array('pipe', 'w')
        );
       
$this->resource    = proc_open($executable." ".$root.$this->script, $descriptorspec, $this->pipes, null, $_ENV);
       
$this->start_time = mktime();
    }
   
   
// is still running?
   
function isRunning() {
       
$status = proc_get_status($this->resource);
        return
$status["running"];
    }

   
// long execution time, proccess is going to be killer
   
function isOverExecuted() {
        if (
$this->start_time+$this->max_execution_time<mktime()) return true;
        else return
false;
    }

}
?>

Example of using:
<?php
$manager
= new Processmanager();
$manager->executable = "C:\\www\\_PHP5_2_10\\php";
$manager->path = "C:\\www\\parallelprocesses\\";
$manager->processes = 3;
$manager->sleep_time = 2;
$manager->addScript("script1.php", 10);
$manager->addScript("script2.php");
$manager->addScript("script3.php");
$manager->addScript("script4.php");
$manager->addScript("script5.php");
$manager->addScript("script6.php");
$manager->exec();
?>

And possible output:

Adding script: script1.php
Adding script: script2.php
Adding script: script3.php
Done: script2.php
Adding script: script4.php
Killed: script1.php
Done: script3.php
Done: script4.php
Adding script: script5.php
Adding script: script6.php
Done: script5.php
Done: script6.php
up
2
weirdall at hotmail dot com
7 years ago
This script will tail a file using tail -F to follow scripts that are rotated.

<?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("pipe", "w")   // stderr is a pipe that stdout will to write to
);

$filename = '/var/log/nginx/nginx-access.log';
if( !
file_exists( $filename ) ) {
   
file_put_contents($filename, '');
}
$process = proc_open('tail -F /var/log/nginx/stats.bluebillywig.com-access.log', $descriptorspec, $pipes);

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 sent to $pipes[2]

    // Closing $pipes[0] because we don't need it
   
fclose( $pipes[0] );

   
// stderr should not block, because that blocks the tail process
   
stream_set_blocking($pipes[2], 0);
   
$count=0;
   
$stream = $pipes[1];

    while ( (
$buf = fgets($stream,4096)) ) {
       
print_r($buf);
       
// Read stderr to see if anything goes wrong
       
$stderr = fread($pipes[2], 4096);
        if( !empty(
$stderr ) ) {
            print(
'log: ' . $stderr );
        }
    }
   
fclose($pipes[1]);
   
fclose($pipes[2]);

   
// It is important that you close any pipes before calling
    // proc_close in order to avoid a deadlock
   
proc_close($process);
}
?>
up
2
vanyazin at gmail dot com
8 years ago
If you want to use proc_open() function with socket streams, you can open connection with help of fsockopen() function and then just put handlers into array of io descriptors:

<?php

    $fh
= fsockopen($address, $port);
   
$descriptors = [
       
$fh,   // stdin
       
$fh,   // stdout
       
$fh,   // stderr
   
];
   
$proc = proc_open($cmd, $descriptors, $pipes);
up
1
snowleopard at amused dot NOSPAMPLEASE dot com dot au
15 years ago
I managed to make a set of functions to work with GPG, since my hosting provider refused to use GPG-ME.
Included below is an example of decryption using a higher descriptor to push a passphrase.
Comments and emails welcome. :)

<?php
function GPGDecrypt($InputData, $Identity, $PassPhrase, $HomeDir="~/.gnupg", $GPGPath="/usr/bin/gpg") {
   
    if(!
is_executable($GPGPath)) {
       
trigger_error($GPGPath . " is not executable",
       
E_USER_ERROR);
        die();
    } else {
       
// Set up the descriptors
       
$Descriptors = array(
           
0 => array("pipe", "r"),
           
1 => array("pipe", "w"),
           
2 => array("pipe", "w"),
           
3 => array("pipe", "r") // This is the pipe we can feed the password into
       
);

       
// Build the command line and start the process
       
$CommandLine = $GPGPath . ' --homedir ' . $HomeDir . ' --quiet --batch --local-user "' . $Identity . '" --passphrase-fd 3 --decrypt -';
       
$ProcessHandle = proc_open( $CommandLine, $Descriptors, $Pipes);

        if(
is_resource($ProcessHandle)) {
           
// Push passphrase to custom pipe
           
fwrite($Pipes[3], $PassPhrase);
           
fclose($Pipes[3]);
           
           
// Push input into StdIn
           
fwrite($Pipes[0], $InputData);
           
fclose($Pipes[0]);
           
           
// Read StdOut
           
$StdOut = '';
            while(!
feof($Pipes[1])) {
               
$StdOut .= fgets($Pipes[1], 1024);
            }
           
fclose($Pipes[1]);
           
           
// Read StdErr
           
$StdErr = '';
            while(!
feof($Pipes[2]))    {
               
$StdErr .= fgets($Pipes[2], 1024);
            }
           
fclose($Pipes[2]);

           
// Close the process
           
$ReturnCode = proc_close($ProcessHandle);

        } else {
           
trigger_error("cannot create resource", E_USER_ERROR);
            die();
        }
    }
   
    if (
strlen($StdOut) >= 1) {
        if (
$ReturnCode <= 0) {
           
$ReturnValue = $StdOut;
        } else {
           
$ReturnValue = "Return Code: " . $ReturnCode . "\nOutput on StdErr:\n" . $StdErr . "\n\nStandard Output Follows:\n\n";
        }
    } else {
        if (
$ReturnCode <= 0) {
           
$ReturnValue = $StdErr;
        } else {
           
$ReturnValue = "Return Code: " . $ReturnCode . "\nOutput on StdErr:\n" . $StdErr;
        }
    }
    return
$ReturnValue;
}
?>
up
1
mendoza at pvv dot ntnu dot no
18 years ago
Since I don't have access to PAM via Apache, suexec on, nor access to /etc/shadow I coughed up this way of authenticating users based on the system users details. It's really hairy and ugly, but it works.

<?
function authenticate($user,$password) {
  $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","/dev/null", "w") // stderr is a file to write to
  );

  $process = proc_open("su ".escapeshellarg($user), $descriptorspec, $pipes);

  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($pipes[0],$password);
    fclose($pipes[0]);
    fclose($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);

    return !$return_value;
  }
}
?>
up
1
picaune at hotmail dot com
18 years ago
The above note on Windows compatibility is not entirely correct.

Windows will dutifully pass on additional handles above 2 onto the child process, starting with Windows 95 and Windows NT 3.5. It even supports this capability (starting with Windows 2000) from the command line using a special syntax (prefacing the redirection operator with the handle number).

These handles will be, when passed to the child, preopened for low-level IO (e.g. _read) by number. The child can reopen them for high-level (e.g. fgets) using the _fdopen or _wfdopen methods. The child can then read from or write to them the same way they would stdin or stdout.

However, child processes must be specially coded to use these handles, and if the end user is not intelligent enough to use them (e.g. "openssl < commands.txt 3< cacert.der") and the program not smart enough to check, it could cause errors or hangs.
up
0
cbn at grenet dot org
14 years ago
Display output (stdout/stderr) in real time, and get the real exit code in pure PHP (no shell workaround!). It works well on my machines (debian mostly).

#!/usr/bin/php
<?php
/*
* Execute and display the output in real time (stdout + stderr).
*
* Please note this snippet is prepended with an appropriate shebang for the
* CLI. You can re-use only the function.
*
* Usage example:
* chmod u+x proc_open.php
* ./proc_open.php "ping -c 5 google.fr"; echo RetVal=$?
*/
define(BUF_SIZ, 1024);        # max buffer size
define(FD_WRITE, 0);        # stdin
define(FD_READ, 1);        # stdout
define(FD_ERR, 2);        # stderr

/*
* Wrapper for proc_*() functions.
* The first parameter $cmd is the command line to execute.
* Return the exit code of the process.
*/
function proc_exec($cmd)
{
   
$descriptorspec = array(
       
0 => array("pipe", "r"),
       
1 => array("pipe", "w"),
       
2 => array("pipe", "w")
    );

   
$ptr = proc_open($cmd, $descriptorspec, $pipes, NULL, $_ENV);
    if (!
is_resource($ptr))
        return
false;

    while ((
$buffer = fgets($pipes[FD_READ], BUF_SIZ)) != NULL
           
|| ($errbuf = fgets($pipes[FD_ERR], BUF_SIZ)) != NULL) {
        if (!isset(
$flag)) {
           
$pstatus = proc_get_status($ptr);
           
$first_exitcode = $pstatus["exitcode"];
           
$flag = true;
        }
        if (
strlen($buffer))
            echo
$buffer;
        if (
strlen($errbuf))
            echo
"ERR: " . $errbuf;
    }

    foreach (
$pipes as $pipe)
       
fclose($pipe);

   
/* Get the expected *exit* code to return the value */
   
$pstatus = proc_get_status($ptr);
    if (!
strlen($pstatus["exitcode"]) || $pstatus["running"]) {
       
/* we can trust the retval of proc_close() */
       
if ($pstatus["running"])
           
proc_terminate($ptr);
       
$ret = proc_close($ptr);
    } else {
        if (((
$first_exitcode + 256) % 256) == 255
               
&& (($pstatus["exitcode"] + 256) % 256) != 255)
           
$ret = $pstatus["exitcode"];
        elseif (!
strlen($first_exitcode))
           
$ret = $pstatus["exitcode"];
        elseif (((
$first_exitcode + 256) % 256) != 255)
           
$ret = $first_exitcode;
        else
           
$ret = 0; /* we "deduce" an EXIT_SUCCESS ;) */
       
proc_close($ptr);
    }

    return (
$ret + 256) % 256;
}

/* __init__ */
if (isset($argv) && count($argv) > 1 && !empty($argv[1])) {
    if ((
$ret = proc_exec($argv[1])) === false)
        die(
"Error: not enough FD or out of memory.\n");
    elseif (
$ret == 127)
        die(
"Command not found (returned by sh).\n");
    else
        exit(
$ret);
}
?>
up
-1
jonah at whalehosting dot ca
15 years ago
@joachimb: The descriptorspec describes the i/o from the perspective of the process you are opening.  That is why stdin is read: you are writing, the process is reading.  So you want to open descriptor 2 (stderr) in write mode so that the process can write to it and you can read it.  In your case where you want all descriptors to be pipes you should always use:

<?php
$descriptorspec
= array(
   
0 => array('pipe', 'r'), // stdin
   
1 => array('pipe', 'w'), // stdout
   
2 => array('pipe', 'w') // stderr
);
?>

The examples below where stderr is opened as 'r' is a mistake.

I would like to see examples of using higher descriptor numbers than 2.  Specifically GPG as mentioned in the documentation.
up
-1
jaroslaw at pobox dot sk
15 years ago
Some functions stops working proc_open() to me.
This i made to work for me to communicate between two php scripts:

<?php
$abs_path
= '/var/www/domain/filename.php';
$spec = array(array("pipe", "r"), array("pipe", "w"), array("pipe", "w"));
$process = proc_open('php '.$abs_path, $spec, $pipes, null, $_ENV);
if (
is_resource($process)) {
   
# wait till something happens on other side
   
sleep(1);
   
# send command
   
fwrite($pipes[0], 'echo $test;');
   
fflush($pipes[0]);
   
# wait till something happens on other side
   
usleep(1000);
   
# read pipe for result
   
echo fread($pipes[1],1024).'<hr>';
   
# close pipes
   
fclose($pipes[0]);fclose($pipes[1]);fclose($pipes[2]);
   
$return_value = proc_close($process);
}
?>

filename.php then contains this:

<?php
$test
= 'test data generated here<br>';
while(
true) {
   
# read incoming command
   
if($fh = fopen('php://stdin','rb')) {
       
$val_in = fread($fh,1024);
       
fclose($fh);
    }
   
# execute incoming command
   
if($val_in)
        eval(
$val_in);
   
usleep(1000);
   
# prevent neverending cycle
   
if($tmp_counter++ > 100)
        break;
}
?>
up
-3
toby at globaloptima dot co dot uk
12 years ago
If script A is spawning script B and script B pushes a lot of data to stdout without script A consuming that data, script B is likely to hang but the result of proc_get_status on that process seems to continue to indicate it's running.

So either don't write to stdout i the spawned process (I write to log files instead now) or try to read in the stdout in a non-blocking way if your script A is spawning many instances of script B, I couldn't get this second option to work sadly.

PHP 5.3.8 CLI on Windows 7 64.
To Top