getting output and exit status from shell_exec()

Question

When doing something like

$output = shell_exec("command 2>&1");

collecting the command's stdout & stderr in $output, is there a way to find the command's exit status?

One could write the command output to a temp file and then append the exit status, but that's rather clunky. Any better suggestions?

Answer 1

Use exec() or popen() (+ manual handling of the process) instead.

Answer 2

As you've already seen, when using shell_exec you have to chain your "real" command with echo $? to get the exit status:

 $output_including_status = shell_exec("command 2>&1; echo $?");

but if you want the clean way, then you want to use the exec function, which allows a 3rd agument explicitly for this purpose.