system

Description

system() is just like the C version of the function in that it executes the given command and outputs the result. If a variable is provided as the second argument, then the return status code of the executed command will be written to this variable.

The system() call also tries to automatically flush the web server's output buffer after each line of output if PHP is running as a server module.

Returns the last line of the command output on success, and FALSE on failure.

If you need to execute a command and have all the data from the command passed directly back without any interference, use the passthru() function.

Example 1. system() example <?php echo '<pre>'; // Outputs all the result of shellcommand "ls", and returns // the last output line into $last_line. Stores the return value // of the shell command in $retval. $last_line = system('ls', $retval); // Printing additional info echo ' </pre> <hr>Last line of the output: '.$last_line.' <hr>Return value: '.$retval; ?>

See also exec(), passthru(), popen(), escapeshellcmd(), and the backtick operator.