What does PHP exec() return value of 5 mean?

[ternto333]

In the command

exec($command, $return_array, $return_value), 

$return_array is empty and $return_value returns 5. I am unfamiliar with the return value of 5. I know if the command successfully executes, a return value of 0 is expected.

 

I am running this command from the web and when I run the exact command from the command line, it works fine. Any thoughts?

[trq]

Depends on what the command is.

[phporcaffeine]

exec() and system() are php shell functions that just pass a call to the server's OS ... anything that exec() or system() returns is whatever the shell returned.  The host language (in this case, PHP) is very much 'out of the loop' when it comes to shell commands.

 

A return status of 5 from a shell of 'ping' could mean one thing on winblows and something totally different on Linux. Additionally, the return of INT(5) could mean one thing to 'ping' but something totally different to 'netstat' ... etc.

 

What command are you shelling and to what OS?

[ternto333]

Thanks for the reply. I'm actually running a swish-e command, which should search my database for a given term. I'm running it on MacOSX Tiger.

[trq]

Then I'd look in the swish man pages to see what a returned value of 5 means.