Executing unix shell commands using PHP

Question

A text box will be used to capture the command. I\'ve been told that I have to use the exec() function to execute UNIX shell commands.

Something like th

Answer 1

Use $output = system($command);

See http://php.net/system and don't forget to read the warnings about security. If you let a user pass any data to system() (or exec() etc.) it's almost as if they had a shell on your server. The same applies if you don't sanitize arguments passed to programs executed through these functions properly.