php script dies when it calls a bash script, maybe a problem of server configuration

Question

Hi!!!

I have some problems with a PHP script that calls a Bash script.... in the PHP script is uploaded a XML file, then the PHP script calls a Bash script that cut the file in portions (for example, is uploaded a XML file of 30,000 lines, so the Bash script cut the file in portions of 10,000 lines, so it will be 3 files of 10,000 each one)

The file is uploaded, the Bash script cut the lines, but when the Bash script returns to the PHP script, the PHP script dies, & I dont know why... I tested the script in another server and it works fine... I dont believe that is a memory problem, maybe it is a processor problem, I dont know, I dont know what to do, what can I do??? (Im using the function shell_exec in PHP to call the Bash script)

The error only happens if the XML file has more than 8,000 lines, but if the file has less then 8,000 everything is ok (this is relative, it depends of the amount of data, of strings, of letters that contains each line)

what can you suggest me??? (sorry for my bad english, I have to practice a lot xD) I leave the code here

PHP script (at the end, after the ?>, there is html & javascript code, but it doesnt appear, only the javascript code... basically the html is only to upload the file)

" . date('c') . ": $str
";
 $file = fopen("uploadxmltest.debug.txt","a");
 fwrite($file,date('c') . ": $str\n");
 fclose($file);
}

 try{
  if(is_uploaded_file($_FILES['tfile']['tmp_name'])){
   debug("step 1: the file was uploaded");

   $norg=date('y-m-d')."_".md5(microtime());
   $nfle="testfiles/$norg.xml";
   $ndir="testfiles/$norg";
   $ndir2="testfiles/$norg";

   if(move_uploaded_file($_FILES['tfile']['tmp_name'],"$nfle")){   
    debug("step 2: the file was moved to the directory");

    debug("memory_get_usage(): " . memory_get_usage());
    debug("memory_get_usage(true): " . memory_get_usage(true));
    debug("memory_get_peak_usage(): " . memory_get_peak_usage());
    debug("memory_get_peak_usage(true): " . memory_get_peak_usage(true));

    $shll=shell_exec("./crm_cutfile_v2.sh \"$nfle\" \"$ndir\" \"$norg\" ");

    debug("result: $shll");   
    debug("memory_get_usage(): " . memory_get_usage());
    debug("memory_get_usage(true): " . memory_get_usage(true));
    debug("memory_get_peak_usage(): " . memory_get_peak_usage());
    debug("memory_get_peak_usage(true): " . memory_get_peak_usage(true));

    debug("step 3: the file was cutted. 
END");
   }
   else{
    debug("ERROR: I didnt move the file");
    exit();
   }
  }
  else{
   debug("ERROR: I didnt upload the file");
   //exit();
  }
 }
 catch(Exception $e){
  debug("Exception: " . $e->getMessage());
  exit();
 }
?>


Test

 function uploadFile(){
  alert("start");
  if(document.test.tfile.value==""){
   alert("First you have to upload a file");
  }
  else{
   document.test.submit();
  }
 }




    
        
        
    

Bash script with AWK

#!/bin/bash

#For single messages (one message per contact)
function cutfile(){
 lines=$( cat "$1" | awk 'END {print NR}' )
 fline="$4";

 if [ -d "$2" ]; then
  exsts=1
 else
  mkdir "$2"
 fi

 cp "$1" "$2/datasource.xml"
 cd "$2"

 i=1
 contfile=1
 while [ $i -le $lines ]
 do 
  currentline=$( cat "datasource.xml" | awk -v fl=$i 'NR==fl {print $0}' )

  #creates first file
  if [ $i -eq 1 ]; then
   echo "$fline" >>"$3_1.txt"
  else
   #creates the rest of files when there are more than 10,000 contacts
   rsd=$(( ( $i - 2 ) % 10000 ))
   if [ $rsd -eq 0 ]; then
    echo "" >>"$3_$contfile.txt"
    contfile=$(( $contfile + 1 ))
    echo "$fline" >>"$3_$contfile.txt"
   fi
  fi

  echo "$currentline" >>"$3_$contfile.txt"
  i=$(( $i + 1 )) 
 done

 echo "" >>"$3_$contfile.txt"
 return 1
}


#For multiple messages (one message for all contacts)
function cutfile_multi(){
 return 1
}

cutfile "$1" "$2" "$3" "$4"
echo 1

thanks!!!!! =D

Answer 1

Here are some things I would look at (mainly to know more specifics about the problem):

• Try substituting different bash scripts, one that does nothing, and one that splits a file of a large size. Does the PHP script die in one or both cases?
• Check permissions on the servers. Are the scripts and files being granted the appropriate permissions? (Though this doesn't explain why small files work OK.)
• Check the PHP and web server error logs. It may be that the error is appearing there rather than in the browser window. (And if so, include it with your question for additional help.)
• Because it seems related to memory, you could try increasing settings in PHP that deal with memory usage for uploads, though I believe the error would occur during the upload, before the bash script call.

Hope these help, I am sorry I can't offer more specific ideas.

Answer 2

You should probably use the split utility instead of most or all of your Bash script.

---

These are some comments on your code. It really needs a major overhaul.

To get the number of lines in a file:

lines=$( wc -l < "$1" )

You never use the variable exsts. Why not just do:

if [ ! -d "$2" ]; then
    mkdir "$2"
fi

Calling awk separately for every single line in the file is extremely slow. Either use one AWK script to do all or most of the work or iterate over the lines in your file using a while loop:

while read -r currentline
do
    process_line    # this represents what needs to be done to each line
done < datasource.xml

In Bash you can increment an integer variable like this:

(( contfile++ ))
(( i++ ))

Your PHP script is calling your Bash script with only three arguments. Other than that I didn't really look at the PHP script.

---

Seriously, though, use split. It's as simple as:

split --lines 10000 --numeric-suffixes --suffix-length 4 datasource.xml "$3_"
for file in "$3_*"
do
    echo "$fline" | cat - "$file" > "$file.txt" && rm "$file"
done