CODEWITHSUNDEEP
phpexec
Intellex
Intellex

Reputation: 173

illegal command error code 127 in php exec function

I am using this php code:

exec("unrar e file.rar",$ret,$code);

and getting an error code of illegal command ie 127 ... but when I am using this command through ssh its working ... because unrar is installed on the server ... so can anyone guess why exec is not doing the right stuff?

Upvotes: 10

Views: 44366

Answers (7)

Ivo Andonov
Ivo Andonov

Reputation: 81

I did not find the solution for my problem of the same type so sharing what was the cause of it in my Linux setup. For whatever reason I needed an apache module loaded before other modules and so apache was started with LD_PRELOAD. As exec inherits the environment of the parent process LD_PRELOAD was used for starting the exec-ed program (through sh). Now the preloaded module uses some bindings to apache functions and of course they are not to be present in sh. The result of the php exec was an exit status of 127. The solution was to have in my php file a putenv("LD_PRELOAD") that gets executed before any exec calls.

Upvotes: 0

Brandon
Brandon

Reputation: 41

Since this comes up as a top answer in google, I wanted to share my fix:

The simple fix I had was to disable safe_mode in the php.ini file

; Safe Mode
; http://www.php.net/manual/en/ini.sect.safe-mode.php#ini.safe-mode
safe_mode = Off

Upvotes: 4

ChrisH
ChrisH

Reputation: 1281

Just in case somebody else still gets this problem, take a look at the post here:

http://gallery.menalto.com/node/2639#comment-8638

Quote:

I found the problem. The problem was my security-paranoid OpenBSD. When upgrading from 3.1 to 3.2 they added:

  • Apache runs chroot'd by default. To disable this, see the new -u option.

The chroot prevented Apache from accessing anything outside of a directory, so I moved everything into the apache directory including netpbm. Everything was accessible and executable, but I guess it was still in some sort of "safe mode" because the exec() always returned 127.

Anyway, running httpd with the -u option went back to the less secure non chroot'd apache startup, which allowed the exec() to work again.

Upvotes: 1

Rogelio Triviño
Rogelio Triviño

Reputation: 91

If you have chrooted apache and php, you will also want to put /bin/sh into the chrooted environment. Otherwise, the exec() or passthru() will not function properly, and will produce error code 127, file not found.

Upvotes: 8

Intellex
Intellex

Reputation: 173

ohkiee guyz thanx ... and yes there might be some errors with $PATH ... but with given full path its working :)

exec("/home/user/bin/unrar e /home/user/xxx/yyy/file.rar");

Upvotes: 0

Intellex
Intellex

Reputation: 173

thanx all for your response!!

I tried this 

//somedir is inside the directory where php file is
chdir("somedir");
exec("/home/username/bin/unrar e /home/path/to/dir/file.rar");

and now it returned no exit code ... oher commands are doing file .. i tried mkdir etc .. :s

Upvotes: 2

AAA
AAA

Reputation: 4956

Try using the direct path of the application (/usr/bin/unrar of whatever), it sounds like php can't find the application.

Upvotes: 27

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