proc_open

Description

proc_open() is similar to popen() but provides a much greater degree of control over the program execution.

PHP 5 introduces pty support for systems with Unix98 ptys. This allows your script to interact with applications that expect to be talking to a terminal. A pty works like a pipe, but is bi-directional, so there is no need to specify a read/write mode. The example below shows how to use a pty; note that you don't have to have all descriptors talking to a pty. Also note that only one pty is created, even though pty is specified 3 times. In a future version of PHP, it might be possible to do more than just read and write to the pty.

Parameters

Return Values

Returns a resource representing the process, which should be freed using proc_close() when you are finished with it. On failure returns FALSE.

ChangeLog

Examples

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

Example 2. ptys usage <?php // Create a pseudo terminal for the child process $descriptorspec = array(    0 => array("pty"),    1 => array("pty"),    2 => array("pty") ); $process = proc_open("cvs -d:pserver:cvsread@cvs.php.net:/repository login", $descriptorspec, $pipes); if (is_resource($process)) {    // work with it here } ?>

Notes

See Also