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phpbashloopsfor-loopshell-exec

Loops with PHP shell_exec() : Use php for() or bash for-do-done?


Let's say I want to execute the command mycommand with PHP shell_exec() 10 times. Should I do a bash loop:

shell_exec('for i in {1 .. 10} do mycommand -i done');

or rather a PHP loop:

for($i = 1; $i <=10; ++$i) { shell_exec('mycommand -'.$i); }

What are the reasons (security, performance, style, ...) to choose one over the other?


Solution

  • Go for bash loop, because shell_exec function is called only once. It will be faster than calling shell_exec multiple times. Enabling functions like exec, shell_exec itself a huge security issue. If someone managed to upload a PHP shell in your server then he can hack your server.