Proposal: &$result_code=null parameter in shell_exec()

3 years ago by Luca Petrucci via internals — view source

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Hi internals,

This is a proposal to add an optional parameter &$result_code = null to the shell_exec() function.

For clarity, the current signature is
shell_exec(string $command): string|false|null
The proposed signature is
shell_exec(string $command, int &$result_code = null): string|false|null

If present, the result_code parameter is set to the exit code of the command, as it is in exec() and system().

This feature request was also posted by another user on https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=81493
I have a draft pull request at https://github.com/php/php-src/pull/7663

Thoughts?

Thanks,
Luca

3 years ago by Kamil Tekiela — view source

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Hi Luca,

How will this change be reflected in its alias, the backtick operator? If
the plan is to change the signature of shell_exec() then the backtick
operator will not behave identically anymore. Am I correct?

Regards,
Kamil

3 years ago by Hans Henrik Bergan — view source

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then the backtick operator will not behave identically anymore. Am I
correct?

yeah kindof-correct, the backtick operator would then behave identically to
giving shell_exec() only 1 argument, or null as the 2nd argument
(btw i'm the guy that made the linked bugs.php.net feature request)

while we're on the topic of shell_exec(), does anyone happen to know why
shell_exec() pipes in text mode/binary-corruption-mode on windows?

Hi Luca,

How will this change be reflected in its alias, the backtick operator? If
the plan is to change the signature of shell_exec() then the backtick
operator will not behave identically anymore. Am I correct?

Regards,
Kamil

3 years ago by Christoph M. Becker — view source

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while we're on the topic of shell_exec(), does anyone happen to know why
shell_exec() pipes in text mode/binary-corruption-mode on windows?

I guess that is for historic reasons, where CRLF vs. LF really mattered
on Windows, and it's more common to get textual results with that
function. There has been an RFC part[1] to change that, but it was
rejected.

[1] https://wiki.php.net/rfc/deprecations_php_8_1#t_fopen_mode

--
Christoph

3 years ago by Luca Petrucci via internals — view source

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Hi Luca,

How will this change be reflected in its alias, the backtick operator? If
the plan is to change the signature of shell_exec() then the backtick
operator will not behave identically anymore. Am I correct?

Regards,
Kamil
Hi,
PHP code that use the backtick operator or shell_exec() will behave identically.
The reason is that when omitting the optional parameter $return_code, the
function call shell_exec("command", null) is executed, which will
execute the "command" and return its output just like it does right now.

Thanks,
Luca

3 years ago by Nikita Popov — view source

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On Thu, Nov 18, 2021 at 8:47 AM Luca Petrucci via internals <
internals@lists.php.net> wrote:

Hi internals,

This is a proposal to add an optional parameter &$result_code = null to
the shell_exec() function.

For clarity, the current signature is
shell_exec(string $command): string|false|null
The proposed signature is
shell_exec(string $command, int &$result_code = null): string|false|null

If present, the result_code parameter is set to the exit code of the
command, as it is in exec() and system().

This feature request was also posted by another user on
https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=81493
I have a draft pull request at https://github.com/php/php-src/pull/7663

Thoughts?

Thanks,
Luca

This looks like a reasonable addition to me. Between shell_exec(),
system(), passthru() and exec(), shell_exec() is the only function that
doesn't currently accept a $result_code parameter, so including it makes
sense for consistency.

Regards,
Nikita

3 years ago by Luca Petrucci via internals — view source

unread

Hi internals,

This is a proposal to add an optional parameter &$result_code = null to the shell_exec() function.

For clarity, the current signature is
shell_exec(string $command): string|false|null
The proposed signature is
shell_exec(string $command, int &$result_code = null): string|false|null

If present, the result_code parameter is set to the exit code of the command, as it is in exec() and system().

This feature request was also posted by another user on https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=81493
I have a draft pull request at https://github.com/php/php-src/pull/7663

Thoughts?

Thanks,
Luca

Hi internals,

Having seen the initial comments about this proposal, I'd like to
request karma to create the RFC (username: lpt).

Thanks,
Luca

3 years ago by Christoph M. Becker — view source

unread

Hi internals,

This is a proposal to add an optional parameter &$result_code = null to the shell_exec() function.

For clarity, the current signature is
shell_exec(string $command): string|false|null
The proposed signature is
shell_exec(string $command, int &$result_code = null): string|false|null

If present, the result_code parameter is set to the exit code of the command, as it is in exec() and system().

This feature request was also posted by another user on https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=81493
I have a draft pull request at https://github.com/php/php-src/pull/7663

Having seen the initial comments about this proposal, I'd like to
request karma to create the RFC (username: lpt).

Karma granted. Best of luck! :)

--
Christoph M. Becker