why no output from exec( $bad_command, $output, $status )?

Dear friends, I have no problem getting the output from a simple command like 'ls' but other commands do not always return their output successfully to php. Does anyone understand why not or how to workaround this problem? For example, if I try to exec an command that does not exist, I don't get the error messages back from the shell. $first_line = exec( 'command not found', $output, $status ); This problem is not limited to non-existent commands, but other executables that return input from a terminal don't return output to exec. Example is java, xalan, etc. SAMPLE CODE $first_line = exec( 'command not found', $output, $status ); echo "$first_line<br>\n"; while (is_array($output) && (list($n,$line)=each($output))) { echo "$n: $line<BR>\n"; } if( $status ) echo "status = true"; OUTPUT: status = true Thanks for your insights. -- greg keraunen <gkeraunen@valinux.com> 408-542-8600 x8085 web software engineer