PHP exec() function returns status code 2

Question

I had a problem while using PHP exec(). I am not able to figure out the issue and I have tried with following code:

exec("pdfcrop --margins '-6 -2 -3 -2' '/home/username/pdf/Figure 1 Timeline of Virtual Sim Use/page.01.pdf' '/home/username/pdf/out/output.pdf'", $output, $error);

Whenever I use this commands in exec() it returns status code of 2 but if I use this command to my terminal then it works well. So kindly give your suggestion to solve this problem.

thank you..

Thanks for your response. Also i have tried with shell_exec() but same result not working. — user2943773
– user2943773, Commented Jan 16, 2014 at 10:35
exec() doesn't return status codes, it returns the last line from the result of the command. Do you mean that $error is 2? Do you mean PDFCrop? — Álvaro González
– Álvaro González, Commented Jan 16, 2014 at 10:43
yes it is an error code and i need to run pdfcrop with exec() function — user2943773
– user2943773, Commented Jan 16, 2014 at 10:45

cornelv · Accepted Answer · 2014-01-16 10:36:38Z

6

php exec function runs the process under the apache user ( www-data ) user most probably this user does not have access to : /home/username/pdf/Figure

You can test this very easy by trying to change this path to /tmp/name of pdf file.pdf

answered Jan 16, 2014 at 10:36

cornelv

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groenhen · Accepted Answer · 2018-02-11 10:17:29Z

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pdfcrop is a Perl program. Opening it to read, you will find it creates tmp files in current directory.
It works in PHP call after I made the following changes:

$tmp = "/tmp/tmp-..."
pdftex - add argument -output-directory=/tmp

edited Feb 11, 2018 at 10:17

groenhen

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answered Feb 11, 2018 at 7:42

max

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Spryciarz Sprytny · Accepted Answer · 2018-08-31 11:27:47Z

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In case of Linux Debian 9.5 I have got from Php exec() function return code 2 because wrong console for user www-data in /etc/passwd file: I had to change line:

www-data:x:33:33:www-data:/usr/sbin/nologin

To:

www-data:x:33:33:www-data:/var/www:/bin/bash

And now error gone and commands are executed as expected!

answered Aug 31, 2018 at 11:27

Spryciarz Sprytny

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