Using exec, how do you change the PHP version you're exec'ing with?

Question

initial-script.php

exec("start /B php file.php >> log-file.log");

file.php

<?php die(phpversion()); ?>

log-file.log

5.5.11

I have 3 php installations in Program Files (x86):

• v5.4
• v5.5
• v5.5.5

I'm looking to force the exec to use v5.4, is this possible?

I've tried different variations to the c:/Program Files (x86)/PHP/v5.4/php.exe file to no avail, usually the script just hangs. One final note, I'm on a Windows 2008 server so nix commands are futile... :/

Answer 1

As Dagon pointed out, the path needs to be defined. However, in Windows, you need to enclose paths with spaces using double quotes. I was also not able to run the script with start /B as originally posted. I'm also using popen now. Here is the working code:

pclose(popen('"C:\/Program Files (x86)\/PHP\/v5.4\/php" file.php var1 var2 >> log-file.log 2>&1 &', "r"));

You'll also see that I've escaped the slashes, hence the \\/ .

Thanks for your help, SO.