How do you call python command “workon” from PHP exec?

Question

I am running a PHP script from the CLI. In that PHP script I would like to execute a few commands from the command line using system() . Perhaps this isn't the right tool for the job, and I could probably just wrap the PHP script in a shell script, but I want to know if it's possible to do completely within the PHP script.

When I do this in a terminal it works fine:

user@host:~$ workon pootle
(pootle)user@host:~$

However this doesn't work from PHP (being executed as the same user).

#!/usr/bin/env php
<?php
system('workon pootle'); // sh: 1: workon: not found
system('/bin/bash workon pootle'); // /bin/bash: workon: No such file or directory
system('/bin/sh workon pootle'); // /bin/sh: 0: Can't open workon

I notice that the output for the last two is exactly the same as when executing by a terminal, but the first one is different. I thought it might be an alias, however it doesn't appear to be. alias | grep -i workon alias | grep -i workon shows no output.

I also compared all of the environment variables returned from command line env and PHP system('env') , and all but _ are exactly the same, including SHELL=/bin/bash .

The output of which workon executed by the terminal is empty.

Edit

Maybe I'm getting somewhere with this.

user@host:~$ type workon
workon is a function
workon () 
{ 
    typeset env_name="$1";
    if [ "$env_name" = "" ]; then
        lsvirtualenv -b;
        return 1;
    fi;
    virtualenvwrapper_verify_workon_home || return 1;
    virtualenvwrapper_verify_workon_environment $env_name || return 1;
    activate="$WORKON_HOME/$env_name/$VIRTUALENVWRAPPER_ENV_BIN_DIR/activate";
    if [ ! -f "$activate" ]; then
        echo "ERROR: Environment '$WORKON_HOME/$env_name' does not contain an activate script." 1>&2;
        return 1;
    fi;
    type deactivate > /dev/null 2>&1;
    if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
        deactivate;
        unset -f deactivate > /dev/null 2>&1;
    fi;
    virtualenvwrapper_run_hook "pre_activate" "$env_name";
    source "$activate";
    virtualenvwrapper_original_deactivate=`typeset -f deactivate | sed 's/deactivate/virtualenv_deactivate/g'`;
    eval "$virtualenvwrapper_original_deactivate";
    unset -f deactivate > /dev/null 2>&1;
    eval 'deactivate () {

        # Call the local hook before the global so we can undo
        # any settings made by the local postactivate first.
        virtualenvwrapper_run_hook "pre_deactivate"

        env_postdeactivate_hook="$VIRTUAL_ENV/$VIRTUALENVWRAPPER_ENV_BIN_DIR/postdeactivate"
        old_env=$(basename "$VIRTUAL_ENV")

        # Call the original function.
        virtualenv_deactivate $1

        virtualenvwrapper_run_hook "post_deactivate" "$old_env"

        if [ ! "$1" = "nondestructive" ]
        then
            # Remove this function
            unset -f virtualenv_deactivate >/dev/null 2>&1
            unset -f deactivate >/dev/null 2>&1
        fi

    }';
    virtualenvwrapper_run_hook "post_activate";
    return 0
}

Answer 1

bash /usr/share/virtualenvwrapper/virtualenvwrapper.sh workon

I found this by installing virtualenvwrapper and then i ran

 env | grep VIRTU
VIRTUALENVWRAPPER_PROJECT_FILENAME=.project
VIRTUALENVWRAPPER_SCRIPT=/usr/share/virtualenvwrapper/virtualenvwrapper.sh
VIRTUALENVWRAPPER_HOOK_DIR=/root/.virtualenvs
_VIRTUALENVWRAPPER_API= mkvirtualenv rmvirtualenv lsvirtualenv showvirtualenv workon add2virtualenv cdsitepackages cdvirtualenv lssitepackages toggleglobalsitepackages cpvirtualenv setvirtualenvproject mkproject cdproject mktmpenv

and saw VIRTUALENVWRAPPER_SCRIPT ... pretty easy to figure out from there

Answer 2

To be able to execute the virtualenvwrapper functions, we need to first source the virtualenvwrapper.sh file. To find the location of that file, in a terminal execute:

which virtualenvwrapper.sh

If that doesn't produce any output, use find to find it.

find /usr/ -name "virtualenvwrapper.sh"

For me, the location was /usr/local/bin/virtualenvwrapper.sh

When PHP does system calls, it uses sh :

<?php
system('echo $0'); // echoes 'sh'

However the virtualenvwrapper.sh script fails when being executed with sh , so we need to use bash instead.

Another thing to note is that PHP system calls are separate subshells from each other, so if you do:

<?php
system('FOO=BAR');
system('echo $FOO');

This prints out an empty line. Where as the following prints BAR :

<?php
system('FOO=BAR && echo $FOO');

Therefore, we need to:

• Use bash instead of sh
• Source the virtualenvwrapper.sh
• Execute workon to change working virtual environments
• Execute any other commands needed
• Do all this in one single line

This is what I came up with and appears to be working correctly:

<?php
$commands = [
    'source /usr/local/bin/virtualenvwrapper.sh',
    'workon pootle',
    'pootle update_stores --project=AIWeb',
];

system('/bin/bash -c "'.implode(' && ', $commands) .'"');