shell_exec not working not able to convert pdftotext

Question

I am trying to convert a pdf file into text file. When I run the command through terminal its working fine but when try to execute it through PHP it's not working.

I am stuck in this situation from last four hour spend lots of time in google but no solution available. Can any body resolve this issue?

File owner - nobody

shell_exec('/usr/bin/pdftotext /opt/lampp/htdocs/foldername/filename.pdf');

Can anyone provide any helpful solution?

I also tried to change usr folder ownership from root to nobody and provide 777 permission on folder and its context.

Answer 1

Your command to run pdftotext is not correct.

There should be a second argument telling pdftotext to write to a specific file or just use a dash "-" to write to stdout, unless you actually want the program to create a text-file with the filename as the pdf (this would require write permissions in the /opt/lampp/.../ folder)

This is at least true for pdftotext version 0.12.4

"Pdftotext reads the PDF file, PDF-file, and writes a text file, text-file. If text-file is not specified, pdftotext converts file.pdf to file.txt. If text-file is ´-', the text is sent to stdout."

So, the solution to your question would simply be add a dash after the filename, like so:

<?php
$pdftext = shell_exec('/usr/bin/pdftotext /opt/lampp/htdocs/foldername/filename.pdf -');
echo $pdftext;

Provided that the binary exists and PHP is allowed to use shell_exec and you have permissions and that the pdf-file exists and you have permissions.

Answer 2

from how to test if PHP system() function is allowed? and not turned off for security reasons

function isAvailable($func) {
    if (ini_get('safe_mode')) return false;
    $disabled = ini_get('disable_functions');
    if ($disabled) {
        $disabled = explode(',', $disabled);
        $disabled = array_map('trim', $disabled);
        return !in_array($func, $disabled);
    }
    return true;
}

You may need to check if isAvailable('shell_exec') On shared hosting this function might be disabled.

If it's not disabled, check the Apache log, it's all you can do.