Using PHP to execute cmd commands

Question

How do I properly execute commands in the command line using php? For example I\'m using the command below in the command line to convert a docx file into a pdf file:

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Answer 1

Don't forget to escape your command with escapeshellcmd(). This will prevent you from having to use ugly backslashes and escape characters.

There are also other alternatives which may work:

`command` // back ticks drop you out of PHP mode into shell
exec('command', $output); // exec will allow you to capture the return of a command as reference
shell_exec('command'); // will return the output to a variable
system(); //as seen above.

Also, make sure your .exe is included within your $PATH variable. If not, include the full path for the command.

Answer 2

system("c:\\path\\to\\pdfcreator.exe /PF\"D:\\Documents\\sample.docx""); 

try this.