How to call external functions from PHP?

There are 4 ways to call external functions in PHP: use the exec() function, use the system() function, use the passthru() function, use the proc_open() function

How to call external functions from PHP?

In PHP, you can call external functions through different methods, including:

1. Use the exec() function:

$result = exec("ls -la");
echo $result;

2. Use system() Function:

system("ls -la");

3. Use passthru() Function:

passthru("ls -la");

4. Use proc_open() Function:

$descriptorspec = array(
   0 => array("pipe", "r"),
   1 => array("pipe", "w"),
   2 => array("pipe", "w"),
);

$process = proc_open("ls -la", $descriptorspec, $pipes);

if (is_resource($process)) {
   while ($line = fgets($pipes[1])) {
      echo $line;
   }

   fclose($pipes[0]);
   fclose($pipes[1]);
   fclose($pipes[2]);

   proc_close($process);
}

Actual case:

The following is an example of using the exec() function to call an external command ls -la from PHP:

<?php
$output = exec("ls -la");
echo $output;
?>

Running this code will output the current List of files and directories for a directory.

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