system() returns the last line of output twice

[seven.reeds]

Hi,

I am running php v 5.0.0 on a redhat box. I have a php script in a
file called p_script_1. I have another small script in file
p_script_2. p_script_1 calles p_script_2 through a system() call. THe
last line of the output from p_script_2 is duplicated. As a test I ran

php -E 'echo system ("ls ");'

<you have to hit ^D after you hit newline>. Anyway, this simple "ls"
is also duplicating the last line of output. Is this a bug or feature?
Oh, just got access to a brand new, up to date RedHat box running php
5.1.4 and it is happening there too.

[David Haynes]

seven.reeds wrote:

Hi,

I am running php v 5.0.0 on a redhat box. I have a php script in a
file called p_script_1. I have another small script in file
p_script_2. p_script_1 calles p_script_2 through a system() call. THe
last line of the output from p_script_2 is duplicated. As a test I ran

php -E 'echo system ("ls ");'

<you have to hit ^D after you hit newline>. Anyway, this simple "ls"
is also duplicating the last line of output. Is this a bug or feature?
Oh, just got access to a brand new, up to date RedHat box running php
5.1.4 and it is happening there too.

ls already emits to STDOUT.

So, you have the output from the 'ls' command and then 'echo' echoing
the last line.

try php -E 'system("ls");' to see the difference.

To see what is really happening, try this:
php -E 'echo -->.system("ls");'

-david-

[seven.reeds]

Doh! thanks David. ... why didn't i try that? sigh

[Andy Jeffries]

On Fri, 23 Jun 2006 16:05:46 -0400, David Haynes wrote:

php -E 'echo system ("ls ");'

<you have to hit ^D after you hit newline>. Anyway, this simple "ls" is
also duplicating the last line of output. Is this a bug or feature?

ls already emits to STDOUT.

So, you have the output from the 'ls' command and then 'echo' echoing the
last line.

You're *ALMOST* right. ls emits the output to STDOUT, but that is trapped
by PHP when running system. PHP then prints the output of the command
when using the "system" function call and returns the last line (which the
OP then echoes).

But the point is, it's the usage of system that's the problem, not ls.

http://uk.php.net/system

If you really want to run the command and only get the last line, you're
better using exec (which is the same as system, but doesn't print the
output, automatically returns the last line and can optionally return the
full output in an array).

http://uk.php.net/exec

Cheers,
Andy

--
Andy Jeffries MBCS CITP ZCE | gPHPEdit Lead Developer
http://www.gphpedit.org | PHP editor for Gnome 2
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