[Mailman-Users] can't call command line functions from php

[Dragon]

Anne Ramey wrote:
>I have my php script running as a user in the mailman group, but when I
>try to do:
>    //add user to Admin email list
>    $command = "/usr/local/mailman/bin/add_members -r ".$Filename." admins";
>    system($command, $status);
>
>I get a status of 1 returned to me and it doesn't add the users.  I've
>tried:
>    shell_exec($command);
>as well but it didn't work either.  I can successfully call these
>functions from my old perl scripts, so I don't think it's a permissions
>issue.  I think I must be missing something in the php.  This may be a
>little out of the scope of this list, but any help would be appreciated.
---------------- End original message. ---------------------

This is slightly off-topic but I am sure there are other users out 
there who also use PHP for web scripting to interface to mailman (I 
do on my system, I am far more comfortable with it than Python).

This sounds like PHP is being run in safe mode and the scripts you 
are trying to run are not allowed under the permitted safe-mode 
commands. Safe mode is often enabled by ISPs running servers that 
host virtual domains to prevent users from doing malicious and/or 
negligent things that can damage the file hierarchy or compromise 
sensitive system information. Chapter 9 of the PHP manual describes 
safe mode and how it works.

If you have error reporting to the browser turned off, you will need 
to look in the HTTP server error log to see if PHP is complaining 
about something. You might have to boost the error-reporting level in 
your PHP script using the error_reporting function in your script to 
get the level of detail you need.

Dragon

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