I use PHP in Windows 11. I need to execute multiple commands in PHP exec.

My sample code is as follows:

$output=null;
$result_code=null;
exec("cd E:/Python/WordFrequency ; ipconfig", $output, $result_code);
return $result_code;

The return error code is 1.

However, if only one command is executed, it can work normally:

exec("cd E:/Python/WordFrequency", $output, $result_code);

Or:

exec("ipconfig", $output, $result_code);

Return codes are all 0.

However, if the two commands are concatenated, code 1 will be returned.

I have tried ";" Replace with "&&", and/or set the command with escapeshellcmd or escapeshellarg, as follows:

exec(escapeshellcmd("cd E:/Python/WordFrequency ; ipconfig"), $output, $result_code);

But the result is the same, and the error code 1 is returned.

What's the matter, please?

CodePudding user response：

Use:

<?php

$commands = "command1.exe && command2.exe && command3.exe";
exec($commands, $output, $result_code);

if ($result_code!== 0) {
    throw new Exception("Failed to execute commands: $commands");
}
var_dump($output);   // the output from the commands

The && operator is used in Windows Command Prompt to run multiple commands one after another. You can also consider using the & operator, to run multiple commands simultaneously.

Using it this way, you should have the same results as running it manually in the Windows command line.

Side note: I wonder if the environment is set exactly the same as in the Windows command line. In other words: environment variables such as %PATH% might be not informed. In case you have problems make sure to add the full path to the commands. For instance:

$commands = "c:\folder1\command1.exe && c:\folder2\command2.exe";