how to do a linux reboot from php file

Question

I have a user brftv on my linux system and I have www-data that runs the nginx.

from the terminal I can let my brftv user run

sudo /sbin/reboot
         


        

Answer 1

Giving reboot permission to www user is a bad idea.Create a cron and do system reboot from the cron rather than from PHP script. The Cron will run every minute and check for reboot flag. If it is set the it will do the reboot.

1)write a flag to a file from your php program so that the cron can decide whether to do reboot or not.

 $Handle = fopen("/tmp/myfile", 'w');
 fwrite($Handle, "doreboot");
 fclose($Handle);

2) Create a bash script to read that file and do reboot if the PHP script tells it to do so.

#!/bin/bash
arg=$(head -n 1 /tmp/myfile)   
if [ "$arg" == "doreboot" ]; then
  >/tmp/myfile
  echo "Rebooting"
  echo 'password' | sudo -S reboot
fi

execute this in shell chmod +x mycron.sh

3) Configure the script in crontab

crontab -e and paste this

* * * * * path/mycron.sh

4) The user who set the cron should have sudo permission. Add him to sudoers.