Posted by Rasmus Lerdorf on 11/26/21 11:16

Michael Stearne wrote:
> I am having the strangest problem using system() or exec() or any
> variation. None of them work on the Fedora Core 3 system that was
> just loaded. The PHP is Version 4.3.11 with Apache 2.0.52, the default
> installation for Fedora Core 3. Everything in PHP works as expected
> except when trying a system call. If I run :
>
> <?
> system("/bin/ls /tmp");
> ?>
>
> on my OS X (Apache/1.3.33 (Darwin) PHP/4.3.4) this returns the desired
> results, a listing of the tmp directory. On the Fedora box I get
> nothing, a blank page. There is content in the /tmp directory on the
> Fedora box.

These sorts of problems are easy to debug. Switch to your web server
user id and issue the same command. You will most often find you have a
permission problem, or in the Fedora/Redhat world you will find that
SELinux is yanking your chain. You may want to read through:

http://fedora.redhat.com/docs/selinux-faq-fc3/

-Rasmus

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