Linux: SCP file to diff directory/change filename using PHP or call sh script fm PHP

Hello all,

First I'm using a Linux computer and trying to write commands into php script to copy a file from one directory to another.

Been trying different things to no avail, would seem might be a simple fix...trying to just copy a file that will have a different filename every hour over to a generic filename already saved in a different directory and save over old data in the file using PHP script. Actually works when I run manually...but not when ran using crontab, not sure why other than maybe $remote_file doesn't have permissions or something and will only copy when I run it manually? Any simple fix for this?

Been trying to use the system command,


$copy = "scp /usr/local/$remote_file /usr/local/profiler/bby.txt";
system($copy);

Also tried calling a seperate shell_script


system(/usr/local/shell_scripts/send_file.sh $remote_file);

Then shell script has same command as above.

Any help appreciated! Thanks

PHP has a rename() function. It wants full file paths from and to.
If its working from the browser, but failing from the crontab, I'd suspect filepermissions are to blame.

I also assume that $remote_file is somehow declared and valid.

Also, you will find that system, exec and `` are often disabled for security reasons in PHP.

put this at the begining of the file and see what's happend:

<?php
ini_set('display_errors', 1);
error_reporting(E_ALL);


crontab scripts run in another envirioment then usual you have in the shell.

I don't understand why do you need php for this job.

best regards

PHP has a rename() function. It wants full file paths from and to.
If its working from the browser, but failing from the crontab, I'd suspect filepermissions are to blame.

I also assume that $remote_file is somehow declared and valid.

Also, you will find that system, exec and `` are often disabled for security reasons in PHP.
op use scp, is probably a network disk mounted somewhere, :)

best regards

put this at the begining of the file and see what's happend:

<?php
ini_set('display_errors', 1);
error_reporting(E_ALL);


crontab scripts run in another envirioment then usual you have in the shell.

I don't understand why do you need php for this job.

best regards

Yeah, I was thinking the exact thing on this one as well. Except, using PHP does give the benefit of being able to handle poor-mans cron, but I don't think thats really an issue nowadays.
Oh, also I assumed that the crontab is actually executing the PHP command first.

PHP has a rename() function. It wants full file paths from and to.
If its working from the browser, but failing from the crontab, I'd suspect filepermissions are to blame.

I also assume that $remote_file is somehow declared and valid.

Also, you will find that system, exec and `` are often disabled for security reasons in PHP.

Fou-Lu...tried the rename() function but same thing happens works when I run it manually or just run the shell. Try to write something like a chmod 777 file_name into the code to give it permissions but does not work. Any other way to give it permissions to grab the file? Thanks

Methinks an ownership/permission problem. Oesxyl will probably be able to help you more on this issue; he knows linux a lot better than I. Who made the file, was it a manual creation or was it created through php via Apache?
Running it manually, I assume you mean served through apache? And for shell, are you using root or the same user executing the cron job?
Also, I assume you're commanding you're cron with something like /usr/bin/php or wherever you're PHP is located?

Methinks an ownership/permission problem. Oesxyl will probably be able to help you more on this issue; he knows linux a lot better than I
I don't think I can help op since don't provide enough information.
This seems to be a old problem( op have another thread with some subject, similar at least).

best regards