PHP exec() Not Working With ffmpeg

Question

I'm attempting to run the following command in PHP (on Ubuntu):

<?php
 if (exec("/home/johnboy/ffmpeg/ffmpeg -i test1.mp4 -acodec aac -ab 128kb -vcodec mpeg4 -b 1220kb -mbd 1 -s 320x180 final_video.mov")) 
      { echo "Success"; }
      else { echo "No good"; }

And I always get "No good" echoed back, and no file created.

Interestingly, if I run the same exact command in Shell, it works, no problems.

Also, when I run the same code above, but subsitute "whoami" instead of the ffmpeg stuff, it works. (It echoes back "Success")

Any ideas on why this wouldn't be working? Thanks.

Answer 1

get the stderr will give the result

try

ffmpeg -i inputfile [more_params] 2>&1

Answer 2

Can the apache/web user reach /home/johnboy/ffmpeg/ffmpeg? That is, perhaps /home/johnboy is 0700 instead of 0755?

Perhaps there are resource limits affecting loading of such a large program and all its libraries?

If you run the script to the php cli sapi, does it behave correctly? Even when running as the apache user?

What does strace -ff show when the apache web user runs the php script through the php cli?