Print output from .out file in a PHP page

Question

I'm having a hard time putting the output from an executable on my web server into a web page. I'm hoping to get a simple "Hello World" going.

Specifically, I have a very basic C program that prints "Hello World". I've compiled it using gcc, which produces HelloWorld.out, which I can run from the command line.

I then have a basic index.php file, in which I am attempting to use passthru() to output the result of the C program into the web page. The .php file looks like:

<?php passthru('HelloWorld.out'); ?>

I've uploaded both the php and the .out file to the same directory on my server. However, index.php produces no output. I've looked around online and there's a few places I may be getting this wrong... My general goal is to be able to embed the output from an executable program on my web server into the page (doesn't need to be HelloWorld.out; possibly the .out extension doesn't work on the server?). Or I may be using passthru() incorrectly; as I understand this is the most barebones was to use it.

Thanks!

Doesn't passthru return nothing, so you obviously have no output on the page? void passthru ( string $command [, int &$return_var ] ) php.net/manual/en/function.passthru.php Or am I missing something? — Oleg
– Oleg, Commented Nov 16, 2012 at 8:12
@Oleg - " Execute an external program and display raw output" — Álvaro González
– Álvaro González, Commented Nov 16, 2012 at 8:12

Ja͢ck · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-17 01:49:12Z

2

When you tell the operating system to run a particular executable without an explicit path it will use the PATH environment variable (colon separated set of paths) to find it.

Typical paths would be /bin, /usr/bin/, etc.

If the executable can't be found in those paths, it will throw an error and give up. To fix this, you have these choices:

Specify the absolute path to the executable (i.e. /path/to/HelloWorld.out)
Specify a path relative to the current directory (i.e. ./HelloWorld.out)
Use PHP to create an absolute path:

passthru(__DIR__ . '/HelloWorld.out');

Or:

    passthru(dirname(__FILE__) . '/HelloWorld.out');

Lastly, the file you wish to execute must be executable, either using chmod to change the permissions or by passing the path of the file to sh.

passthru('/bin/sh ' . dirname(__FILE__) . '/HellWorld.out');

edited Nov 17, 2012 at 1:49

answered Nov 16, 2012 at 8:12

Ja͢ck

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3 Comments

Nik Over a year ago

Hi Jack, thanks for the response! I'm still not getting any output, however... I've tried passthru(./HelloWorld.out');, passthru('/public_html/test/HelloWorld.out');, passthru(__DIR__ . '/public_html/test/HelloWorld.out');, and passthru(dirname(__FILE__) . '/public_html/test/HelloWorld.out');, none are producing any output..

Nik Over a year ago

Nevermind I got it working. - my second issue (foolishly) was simply that I forgot to change the permissions of HelloWorld.out to be executable... duh. You are right about the path though, even with the correct permissions it wouldn't have worked with my initial setup. Currently passthru('./HelloWorld.out'); is doing the trick. Thanks!

Ja͢ck Over a year ago

Forgot about the possibility that it may not have the x permissions :) added

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