ffmpeg run from command line executes, from mod_fcgi truncates after completion

Question

The ffmpeg from command line generates preview files and two separate two-pass conversion that when run from a shell script, execute successfully.

Running the commands via php's exec(/usr/bin/ffmpeg) or through exec(name_of_shell_script) generates preview files successfully. THe strange behavior is that the movies will generate, then truncate. ffmpeg log files are generated successfully, the out put file I can watch grow in size as the conversion continues, and then, when complete it appears, the files are truncated....

The only things that have changed on the system are changing from mod_php to mod_fcgi and php_cgi, but the error logs show nothing unusual except for

mod_fcgid: stderr: wmv, files3/1qwj, 1qwj.wmv

supressing output of the shell

scriptname.sh > /dev/null 2>&1

does not change the outcome.

should shell_exec be used? Is it a unix permissioning?

This is in ubuntu 10.04.1

This solution doesn't apply http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2504842/ffmpeg-running-in-command-line-but-not-php

EDIT:

looks like it might have something to do with the two pass encoding. The two pass encoding works fine from command line, but from the PHP env the shell overwrites something on the second pass.

nice -n 11 /usr/bin/ffmpeg -y -i  $1 -r 30000/1001 -b 1M -bt 2M -vcodec libx264 -threads 0  -pass 1 -vpre /usr/share/ffmpeg/libx264-fastfirstpass.ffpreset -an movie.flv 
nice -n 11 /usr/bin/ffmpeg -y -i  $1 -r 30000/1001 -b 1M -bt 2M -vcodec libx264  -threads 0  -pass 2  -vpre /usr/share/ffmpeg/libx264-hq.ffpreset -acodec libfaac -ac 2 -ar 48000 -ab 192k movie.flv 

$1 is the input filename

found https://roundup.ffmpeg.org/issue1829

Edit:

when done here are the log file artifacts

-rw-r--r--     1 www-data www-data        0 2010-09-19 19:02 ffmpeg2pass-0.log
-rw-r--r--     1 www-data www-data        0 2010-09-19 19:02 movie.flv
-rw-r--r--     1 www-data www-data   153466 2010-09-19 19:02 movie.jpg
-rw-r--r--     1 www-data www-data   358803 2010-09-19 19:02 movie_preview.jpg
-rw-r--r--     1 www-data www-data   410283 2010-09-19 19:02 x264_2pass.log
-rw-r--r--     1 www-data www-data  5759257 2010-09-19 19:02 x264_2pass.log.mbtree

opened new ticket at request of maintainer https://roundup.ffmpeg.org/issue2238

Edit: looks like the issue is the audio for wmv files

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1074152

Answer 1

Issue went away by updating ffmpeg and compiling. wmv pro audio files are now supported in ffmpeg, and the installation I was using did not support.