PHP shell_exec() - Verbose Output?

Question

I have a Codeigniter project that uses Codeception for acceptance testing. I have a 'tools' controller setup in Codeigniter, which I use to store command line methods that perform various utility functions.

In this case, I'm creating a utility method that sets up the testing environment, switches databases, builds / runs the tests, etc.

I'm using the PHP function shell_exec() to run the codception commands. They're working, however when shell_exec() issues the `php codecept.phar run' command, it's not providing verbose output. It waits until all the tests are done (which takes a long time) and then spits out all the output at the end.

Is there a way to have shell_exec() print the output as it receives it?

example code:

public function run_tests() 
{ 
     $this->load->database('testing'); 
     echo shell_exec("cd ..; php codecept.phar build"); 
     echo shell_exec("cd ..; php codecept.phar run"); 
}

Answer 1

Use passthru, which streams the output of a command directly to the response stream.