shell_exec

Execute command via shell and return the complete output as a string.

shell_exec Function synopsis

shell_exec(string $command): string|false|null

Parameters

$command

Typestring

The command that will be executed.

Return value

Typestring|false|null

A string containing the output from the executed command, false if the pipe cannot be established or null if an error occurs or the command produces no output.

This function can return `null` both when an error occurs or the program
produces no output. It is not possible to detect execution failures using
this function. [`exec`](/codex/exec) should be used when access to the
program exit code is required.