Re: running C/Fortran progz via command line ?

use the "passthru" function to execute a program, then use output buffering to control it's output: http://www.php.net/manual/en/ref.outcontrol.php http://zend.com/zend/art/buffering.php http://phpbuilder.com/columns/argerich20010125.php3 http://www.phpdev.com/view.phph/4.html A small example: <?php ob_start(); passthru('ls -lA /usr'); $text = ob_get_contents(); ob_end_clean(); echo "<pre>" . htmlspecialchars($text) . "</pre>"; ?> Mike Lee wrote:

Hi, I wonder if anyone could perhaps answer a question for me regarding PHP and it's ability to inter(face/act) with external applications - running on the same (linux) machine. I am developing a web application and one of it's functions requires it to be able to execute programs (mainly written in c, but also Fortran) via command lines including all the required arguments; e.g. ./do-something -i1 file1.txt - i2 file2.txt -o results.txt In some cases the program output would have to be obtained (and returned to PHP for processing), and in others it would not - some of the calculations take a few hours - in which case the results would be mailed directly to the user when complete. I anticipate the flow of things will be as follows: 1-User will submit some data / upload files via web forms. 2-PHP will then use this data and then generate a command to execute an external program running on the same machine. 3-The user can then be notified if the program executed correctly, and if applicable, return any data. Can PHP be of any use here? Is the above possible? Is anyone doing something similar at the present time? If anyone could provide me with any information, I would greatly appreciate it. - Best regards, Lee Reilly