bad exec parse in nested foreach loop

Hi, I posted this on phpbuilders forum last week and didn't get a peep, so please let me know if more info or clarification would help.... This involves exec parsing and the foreach function in PHP4. I'm encountering a problem with the parsing of an exec string within a foreach loop (itself nested in an if loop). The string executes correctly outside of the foreach loop, but within the foreach mangles the arg syntax and returns error code 127. The exec string within the foreach loop parses correctly up until it enounters the arguments to my shell script. There it sees 0 or 1 arguments passed to the shell script, triggering the "Usage: " message. The exec string invokes the shell script via /bin/bash -c and looks like this: exec("bin/putenv SOME_STRING /bin/bash -c \"bin/suexec $login \\\$SOME_STRING my/shell/script $arg1 $arg2 $arg3 \" <<:eof\n".$somestring."\n:eof\n", $output, $return); For context, the foreach loop correctly expands and interprets variable and array assignments. Regards, Julie -- Julie Tsai 415 864 0861 (h) 415 990 5271 (cel)