'git pull' command work from terminal but not with php shell_exec() via git repository hook

Question

I have create a webhook in my github repository which post on the hook url on my live server to run pull command for update my repo files on the server.

The problem is the hook file which i have created is in the /var/www/site/web/hookfile.php (the post request is going there. i am getting the body response also)

and my repo files are in /var/www/git-repo/

its not updating the git-repo when i push anything to my github repository. I run this command using terminal and its working.

cd /var/www/git-repo && git pull

But through my php file its not working

shell_exec('cd /var/www/git-repo && git pull')

Answer 1

shell_exec() fail silently because only report STDOUT and not STDERR.

Try with:

echo shell_exec("cd /var/www/git-repo && /full/path/to/bin/git pull 2>&1");

Normally is a permission error, and could be fixed adding permission to the user that execute php (apache?)

chown -R www-agent:www-agent repository/

But could be also a connection error to the remote repository (authentication, ssh-keys, ...).