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passthru

PHP function Edit on GitHub ✎

(PHP 4, PHP 5, PHP 7, PHP 8)

Execute an external program and display raw output

Description

passthru(string $command, int $result_code = null): false|null

The passthru() function is similar to the exec() function in that it executes a command. This function should be used in place of exec() or system() when the output from the Unix command is binary data which needs to be passed directly back to the browser. A common use for this is to execute something like the pbmplus utilities that can output an image stream directly. By setting the Content-type to image/gif and then calling a pbmplus program to output a gif, you can create PHP scripts that output images directly.

Parameters

command: The command that will be executed.
result_code: If the result_code argument is present, the return status of the Unix command will be placed here.

Return Values

Nullorfalse

Errors/Exceptions

Will emit an E_WARNING if passthru() is unable to execute the command.

Throws a ValueError if command is empty or contains null bytes.

Changelog

Version	Description
8.0.0	If `command` is empty or contains null bytes, `passthru()` now throws a `ValueError`. Previously it emitted an `E_WARNING` and returned false.