php exec() not working with SOME of the windows environment variables

Question

I am trying to run a couple commands from PHP with exec() and it seems to work only for some of the commands defined in my windows environment variables but not for all.
In my command prompt I can run all of this commands succesfully from any path (C:\ or E:\whatever)

> pear -V     // ... "PEAR Version: 1.9.5" ...
> dot -V      // dot - graphviz version 2.38.0 (20140413.2041)
> phpdoc -V   // phpDocumentor version 2.8.1

All of them return the correct version for each of the specified programs, that means that the environment variables are well configured.
But in PHP I can only run some commands, the rest of them fails:

$out = array();
$ret = '';

exec('pear -V', $out, $ret);
echo var_dump($out); // $ret = 0, $out = array ..."PEAR Version: 1.9.5" ...

exec('phpdoc -V', $out, $ret);
echo var_dump($out); // $ret = 1, $out = array ..."Could not open input file: \phpdoc" ...

exec('dot -V', $out, $ret);
echo var_dump($out); // $ret = 1, $out = empty array

So, am I missing something?.

EDIT: exec() is working fine, it works for some of my environment variables like pear, cmd, among others, it does not work for the specified above

phpdoc
dot (GraphViz)

Even though they work on my command prompt and are well configured in my windows environment.

EDIT2:
@Stefan Cvetkovic I gues this is the part that you want to see from the result when running this command

shell_exec("set"):

Path=C:\ProgramData\Oracle\Java\javapath;C:\Windows\system32;C:\Windows;C:\Windows\System32\Wbem;C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\;C:\Program Files\TortoiseHg\;C:\Program Files (x86)\Universal Extractor;C:\Program Files (x86)\Universal Extractor\bin;C:\xampp\php; PATHEXT=.COM;.EXE;.BAT;.CMD;.VBS;.VBE;.JS;.JSE;.WSF;.WSH;.MSC

Is it possible that php has no access to my "dot" path, because this is missing from that result:

...C:\xampp\php;C:\xampp\php\pear\phpDocumentor\vendor\graphviz\bin

dot.exe is located in C:\xampp\php\pear\phpDocumentor\vendor\graphviz\bin and it is well configured as I can run > dot -V from my command prompt. I have also tried changing its position in the PATH variable without luck.

Shouldn't the exec() be disabled by safe mode? Have you set the safe mode off? — Afaan Bilal
– Afaan Bilal, Commented Mar 2, 2015 at 15:39
exec() is fine, it works with some commands, but it is not working with some others. — user1626498
– user1626498, Commented Mar 2, 2015 at 15:49

Tiger Fok · Accepted Answer · 2017-06-22 05:25:54Z

2

Although two years late, I found myself in the same situation and found a solution:

<?php
putenv('PATH=' . $_SERVER['PATH']);
$currentBranch = exec('git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD');

The environment variable is missing for unknown reason in exec call,

but it does exists in $_SERVER['PATH'], the code just put it back and it works

answered Jun 22, 2017 at 5:25

Tiger Fok

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Marco Berger · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-19 08:49:16Z

1

I was just having the same issue. In case anyone is having the same problem, make sure to restart the webserver (apache in my setup) because the PATH-variable was set recently and therefore was not available for the process (httpd) which was started prior to setting the variable.

answered May 19, 2017 at 8:49

Marco Berger

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Adam T · Accepted Answer · 2015-03-02 15:42:39Z

0

I would try using gettype on arrays or vars that are in question.

Barring that, I would also run the phpinfo() to see if that item is enabled in your server (or php.ini which I'm sure you checked?).

Saw a few interesting notes on exec exec() and shell exec http://php.net/manual/en/function.shell-exec.php, where an item needs admin privileges to run. Perhaps it applies?

edited Mar 2, 2015 at 15:42

answered Mar 2, 2015 at 15:35

Adam T

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Stefan Cvetkovic · Accepted Answer · 2015-03-02 16:43:00Z

0

Try using shell_exec().

On linux platform for example i can't use exec to retrieve lm-sensors data, but with shell_exec i can, and you will get complete output as sting.

shell_exec() manual

Edit:

Try this:

$command = new COM("WScript.Shell");
$shellCommand = $command->Exec("C:\program.exe");

Now grab the output.

$standard = $shellCommand->StdOut->ReadAll;    # Standard output
$error = $shellCommand->StdErr->ReadAll;       # Error

edited Mar 2, 2015 at 16:43

answered Mar 2, 2015 at 15:58

Stefan Cvetkovic

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3 Comments

user1626498 Over a year ago

I've tried shell_exec() as well, with the same results: echo shell_exec('phpdoc -V'); // Could not open input file: \phpdoc. Also, for echo shell_exec('dot -V'); // empty string

Stefan Cvetkovic Over a year ago

Can you try first to run shell_exec("set"); and post result.

user1626498 Over a year ago

I added a second edit (EDIT2), my path variable is OK, but it seems that php can't access to all of its elements.

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