PHP Command in script has different results than shell

Question

I have the following lines in a BASH script:

ACTIONS_COMMAND="php -f $BASEDIR/scripts/activities.php < \"$SRC_DIR/%s/AndroidManifest.xml\""

printf -v ACTIONS_CMD "$ACTIONS_COMMAND" $FOLDER

$ACTIONS_CMD

This runs inside a loop to do the same operation to several Android applications. When I echo the $ACTIONS_CMD and copy and paste the command, it produces the correct output, but the script itself starts PHP, but does not copy the STDIN. I know this because PHP hangs until I push Ctrl-D on the keyboard and then it complains there was no input.

I tried switching the PHP command to

ACTIONS_COMMAND="cat \"$SRC_DIR/%s/AndroidManifest.xml\" | php -f $BASEDIR/scripts/activities.php"

When the first file name is in quotes (which I think it should be for safety), I get

cat: "apps/app_name/AndroidManifest.xml": No such file or directory
cat: |: No such file or directory
cat: php: No such file or directory
cat: -f: No such file or directory
<?php
... REST OF PHP SCRIPT ...

and without the quotes, it just outputs to the terminal window.

If it matters, it is GNU bash, version 3.2.51(1)-release (x86_64-apple-darwin13).

add an echo just before the final constructed command to see what is generated and potentially any errors. — Matt Williamson
– Matt Williamson, Commented Dec 12, 2013 at 2:34
@MattWilliamson I did that and the command that resulted ran fine manually in the terminal. — yakatz
– yakatz, Commented Dec 12, 2013 at 2:55

Moshe Katz · Accepted Answer · 2013-12-12 02:53:10Z

0

You cannot execute programs with input/output redirection in a string like that. It will attempt to use the pipe and angle characters and the file as input to the program you executed.

You need to pass that string to a shell in order to do the redirection.

One way to do that is:

bash -c "$ACTIONS_COMMAND"

answered Dec 12, 2013 at 2:53

Moshe Katz

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