PHP shell commands (exec, passthru and system) won't execute

To all,

I posted this question once before on the general PHP list; however, now
that the list has been segmented into different groups, I thought I'd try
once again.

I am a PHP newbie and am having trouble getting PHP shell commands (exec,
passthru and system) to execute. Even something as simple as

<?
system("dir c:\\");
?>

won't execute on a Webserver running NT Server 4.0 and IIS 4.0. The message
that comes back is

Warning: Unable to fork [dir c:\] in C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\mjg\test1.php on
line 2

This very same script ran on a Linux Webserver. Permissions have been set
very liberally so I don't think this is the issue. Other PHP scripts that
do not contain shell commands do execute.

One suggestion was to try either

system("command /c dir c:\\");

or

system("cmd /c dir c:\\");

Neither of these were successful and resulted in similar error.

Does any one have any ideas?

Thx in advance,

mjg ( graz@multicastisp.com ; 914-462-9084 )

Mike Graziano wrote:

> To all,
>
> I posted this question once before on the general PHP list; however, now
> that the list has been segmented into different groups, I thought I'd try
> once again.
>
> I am a PHP newbie and am having trouble getting PHP shell commands (exec,
> passthru and system) to execute. Even something as simple as
>
> <?
> system("dir c:\\");
> ?>
>
> won't execute on a Webserver running NT Server 4.0 and IIS 4.0. The message
> that comes back is
>
> Warning: Unable to fork [dir c:\] in C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\mjg\test1.php on
> line 2
>
> This very same script ran on a Linux Webserver. Permissions have been set
> very liberally so I don't think this is the issue. Other PHP scripts that
> do not contain shell commands do execute.
>
> One suggestion was to try either
>
> system("command /c dir c:\\");
>
> or
>
> system("cmd /c dir c:\\");
>
> Neither of these were successful and resulted in similar error.
>
> Does any one have any ideas?
>
> Thx in advance,

Try the full path and name thing
i.e. my sys has "%SystemRoot%\system32\cmd.exe" in the
link/shortcut in my menu try that though I think the full
thing i.e. system("C:\\winnt\\system32\\cmd.exe dir C:\\")
on my sys.

--
Francis Smit


Knowledge By Design/OzTel
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