[jkpolsar]

We recently upgraded to PHP 5.2.3 and are now running into some problems with a script we previously wrote. It is a script that uses FFMPEG to convert uploaded MPG or WMV files into FLV. Since files are uploaded by users, it uses cronjobs to check if a new file has been uploaded every minute and then converts. It uses the exec() function to run the FFMPEG commands.

It used to work fine, but after the upgrade does not any more. I have checked the more obvious problems, such as if PHP is in safe mode (it's not). I can still use PHP's exec() function to run simple commands like "ls", but cannot use it for "chmod" or "ffmpeg", which is what I need. I believe it is a permissions problem, and all I have to do is allow Linux user "videogam" (what the PHP script runs as) the correct permissions to execute the "chmod" and "ffmpeg" commands. Since I don't use Unix that much, I don't know if this is a PHP issue or a Linux one, nor how to do this.

I've searched all over the internet for a solution but I have yet to find one. Please let me know if this was confusing.

Thanks for the help.

EDIT: the only error returned using system() is the number "127" with no text description

[nova912]

This might be a long shot but you can also execute unix commands by using back ticks...

PHP Code:

$list = `ls -a`; 

$list contains what is returned from that command... maybe it will work, I'm not too sure.

[jkpolsar]

Thank you for the suggestion. However, that doesn't seem to be the problem. The problem is that PHP is not able to execute any commands that require a higher access level (like chmod).

Basically, I believe that the actual PHP function is working okay (e.g. exec(), system(), or backticks), but the user that PHP is running as is not allowed to perform higher-level functions. How do I make it so that PHP can execute a few root-level functions (chmod and ffmpeg in my case) without the security concerns of letting it run as root?

Thanks!

[wirehopper]

Ideas:

Change the way your script runs to eliminate the chmod requirement.

Adjust the permissions on the FFMPEG code to allow Apache to execute it.

Check the log files to see if there are any helpful error messages (/etc/httpd/logs/error_log)

Send a ticket to the hosting company (if this isn't on your server), with the question

http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod...mon.html#group, http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod...mmon.html#user

Check http://us2.php.net/manual/en/function.ssh2-exec.php