[SOLVED] inserting variables

[the_oliver]

Hello,
I have a scrip which i want to add a line onto the bottom of the text file.  If i am in terminal i can just type:

[code]printf "bla bla" >> /etc/filename.whatever[/code]

If i then do this:

[code]$output = shell_exec('printf "bla bla" >> /etc/filename.whatever');[/code]

It works like a dream!  However if i try to involve variable it all goes wrong!  The code below for example places nothing into the file.

[code]$fun = "me";
$funky = "'printf \"".$fun."\" >> /BlueEmu/test.txt'";
$output = shell_exec('$funky');

neither does:
$output = shell_exec('printf \"".$fun."\" >> /BlueEmu/test.txt');
[/code]

Can someone tell me where im going wrong? - Thanks

[kenrbnsn]

Why don't you use PHP to add the line?
[code]<?php
$fp = fopen('/BlueEmu/test.txt','a'); // open the file for append
fwrite($fp,$fun."\n");
fclose($fp);
?>[/code]

This assumes that the process that the webserver runs under has permission to write the the file.

Ken

[wildteen88]

Here you are doing it wrong:
$output = shell_exec('$funky');

Variables are treated as text if they are in single quotes. Remove the quotes. Also echo out the funky variable to see what is being passed to the shell_exec function.

[ober]

Surely that is one way to do it, but you might have better luck using fopen(), fwrite(), etc to do file manipulation rather than calls to the shell.

Besides, printf only takes variables as arguments, not directly in the string.  You'd have to do something like:

printf("blah blah %s", $fun) (or however you reference variables within printf... it's been a while since I used it).

[the_oliver]

It was the ' that was causing the problem.  Genius's!