Export a variable from PHP to shell

Question

I'm trying to set a variable that should be accessible from outside PHP. Ideally this should be a local variable, but environment variables are also welcome.

First, I've tried putenv(), but this gives no result:

$ php -r "putenv('PHP_TEST=string');" ; echo $PHP_TEST

$

When i call getenv() from the same script — it results in the right 'string' value. Safe mode is off, but the manual says 'PHP_' prefix is vital with safe=on so I use it just in case :)

Then I try system() or shell_exec():

$ php -r "shell_exec('PHP_TEST=string');" ; echo $PHP_TEST

$ php -r "shell_exec('export PHP_TEST=string');" ; echo $PHP_TEST

$

Is there a workaround? what might be the reason? I'm using Ubuntu Linux 9.10 "Karmic", but FreeBSD server gives the same result.

Answer 1

Environment variables that are exported are only available in child processes.

So you'll be able to set an environment variable and then spawn a child process. The environment variable will be visible in that child process. However setting it in php and then launching a successive process (echo, in your example above) won't work.

If you set the variable and then spawn/exec a new process, it should be visible in that new process.

Answer 2

If you're trying to pass some output to a shell variable, you can do it like this:

$ testvar=$(php -r 'print "hello"')
$ echo $testvar
hello

Showing how export affects things:

$ php -r '$a=getenv("testvar"); print $a;'
$ export testvar
$ php -r '$a=getenv("testvar"); print $a;'
hello

In these examples, the interactive shell is the parent process and everything else shown is a child (and siblings of each other).