Possible to work with commandline in php on webhost?

Question

i want to use this script http://www.paulhammond.org/webkit2png/ inside my codeigniter project.

I've only a shared webhosting package.

So i ask myself if it's possible to work with my codeigniter/php also on commandline?

I'm not conform with working on commandline, so please sorry for my question and thanks for explain me what is possible and what not.

Answer 1

PHP has function allow to execute command on unix using exec function and shell_exec for powershell command.
Command

<?php
echo exec('whoami');

Powershell command

<?php
$output = shell_exec('ls -lart');
echo "<pre>$output</pre>";

Example:

// Chmod doesn't work it needs root permission.
// exec('chmod a+x /path/to/webkit2png');

// Make sur that webkit2png is installed
echo exec('webkit2png --help');
echo exec('webkit2png http://www.google.com/');