Difference between system and shell_exec

Question

What is the difference between shell_exec and system methods in PHP?

Both take a single command line argument and runs that within PHP. Is it better to use one over the other?

Answer 1

See the explanation here:

http://chipmunkninja.com/Program-Execution-in-PHP%3A-exec-m@

Answer 2

With system is possible to capture the return code. Already with the shell_exec is not possible.

Answer 3

I think the main different is when PHP is running in safe mode. System will still work with some restriction as described in documentation however shell_exec will be disabled.