I think this is a bug...cant use exec commands.

I can't seem to use the shell_exec() command. Here is the program: <?php $data = shell_exec("free -b"); $data = str_replace(' ',' ',$data); $data = str_replace(' ',' ',$data); $data = str_replace(' ',' ',$data); $data = str_replace(' ',' ',$data); $dataArray = explode(' ',$data); $total = $dataArray[16]; $used = $dataArray[17]; echo $used.chr(10); echo $total.chr(10); ?> I can make this script executable via chmod 700 mem.php and run it directly via the command line. Only then I can get it to work on my redhat 9 machine. The problem is I call this script from another script to plot out the data on MRTG graphs. I expect to see something like : [root@rain php-4.3.2]# php /var/www/html/swap/mem.php 246789242 512689734 [root@rain php-4.3.2]# But in fact I get the warning : [root@rain php-4.3.2]# php /var/www/html/swap/mem.php Warning: shell_exec(): Cannot execute using backquotes in Safe Mode in /var/www/html/swap/swap.php on line 3 [root@rain php-4.3.2]# The warning would be applicable if any php.ini file on my system had Safe Mode enabled. As the bug people said shell_exec() == ``. But that applies if anywhere on my box safemode was enabled. I have spent 4 solid days looking and verifying there is no safe mode enabled on my box. It's an internal monitoring server there is absolutely no need for safe mode. This is what is in my PHP.ini ; Safe Mode ; safe_mode = Off safe_mode_gid = Off Can someone tell me if they can run that script on their *nix machine? I'm running php 4.32 apache 2.0 server on a up-to-date redhat 9 server. I don't think this script can be run from another program.