Include() with cgi problems

[VB]

Dear friends,

I have a big problem. With an usersonline script I need to extract in
php the output of a cgi using buffering output in this way:

<?php
ob_start();
include('/home/mysite/public_html/cgi-bin/usersonline/online.cgi');
$contents = ob_get_contents ();
ob_end_clean();
echo $contents;
?>

In this way the code of the cgi is displayed, not executed. Why? I need
to execute and catch the output in this way...with
include('http://www.mysite.com/cgi-bin/usersonline/online.cgi') works
well but the requestes come with the same ip (my server) and this is
not the results which I want.

Thanks,

Vincenzo, Rome, IT

[Malcolm Dew-Jones]

VB (vi************ ****@gmail.com) wrote:
: Dear friends,

: I have a big problem. With an usersonline script I need to extract in
: php the output of a cgi using buffering output in this way:

: <?php
: ob_start();
: include('/home/mysite/public_html/cgi-bin/usersonline/online.cgi');
: In this way the code of the cgi is displayed, not executed. Why? I need
: to execute and catch the output in this way...with
: include('http://www.mysite.com/cgi-bin/usersonline/online.cgi') works
: well but the requestes come with the same ip (my server) and this is
: not the results which I want.

You are including a file, so PHP reads the data into memory, and runs it
as a php program (i.e. it looks for <?php ...?> tags and runs any php code
it finds.)

That is, in fact, identical to what happens using the "http://server..."
syntax, except that the include gets the data from a different location.
Instead of reading the data from a file handle, it reads the data from a
socket handle. The socket is being sent the data from a web server.

In both situations the include will check for <?php tags and maybe run the
data as a php script.

In neither situation does the include ever run the file as a cgi script.

HOWEVER, since it's a local file, you can run it yourself using php
functions such as

exec() system() passthru() escapeshellcmd( ) pcntl_exec()
system() backtick operator

Look them up to check which would be best for you.

THE ENVIRONMENT

Because it is a cgi script it will expect certain environment variables to
be set. But since php is already running in a cgi environment then you
might not need to set any of the variables yourself - they are already
set. Whether they have the correct values for the script will depend on
what the script does. I would just give it a try and see what happens.

--

This programmer available for rent.