Post processing Perl output through PHP
Hi all, I am having a knightmare trying to get some PHP into the output of a Perl script. PHP. I've heard rumours of Apache 2.0 allowing multiple filters, which would be perfect when it's out, but not yet obviously. I've tried calling the CGI PHP from inside Perl in a few ways: == #!/usr/bin/perl $result = `/usr/bin/php -q EOF ?php echo Hello World; ? EOF `; print Content-Type: text/html\n\n; print PHP output was $result\n; exit; == I've also tried running this command as a system() call in Perl, and sending the output of /usr/bin/php to a temporary file, then using Perl to open and read the contents of that file. Both methods work if I call the script myself at a shell prompt. In the case of the file creation, an 11 byte file is duly created. However, when I call the perl script from a web browser, I lose the PHP output. The code given above doesn't help narrow it down, but in the case of the file creating version, I notice back at a shell prompt that the call to /usr/bin/php has made a 0 byte file... which obviously explains why I see nothing once Perl copies it to the output. So, that means there is something about /usr/bin/php that is making it generate absolutely no output when called via apache and the perl script. I am guessing that this has to do with the environment variables, as I can see no other way in which /usr/bin/php would be aware of a difference in its environment. So, my question is, does anybody know how to persuade PHP to give me the output when called in this way... perhaps by forging an environment variable from Perl first, or some clever command line switch... Alternatively, and much preferred, some way of parsing the whole of the perl output through PHP before returning to the browser. Then I could just print PHP tags in my Perl output and Apache/mod_php would handle the rest on the way back... For reasons that really aren't worth going into, I need to access some messy PHP functions from Perl, and I can't rewrite the PHP functions in Perl because I have .php pages that need them, and I can't rewrite the Perl scripts in PHP either. If I can't find a way of doing this, I will probably tear all my hair out and then sit down to rewrite a separate copy of every routine in Perl, and have two copies of all the code in two different languages... knightmare come true ! Please please help me !!! James [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Post processing Perl output through PHP
[EMAIL PROTECTED]'s message: I'm not entirely sure if I'm getting what you're asking here - I get the impression you want the Perl program to call the php script, such as http://localhost/script.php3 and get the results from that script which you then push into the results of your perl script, correct? The reason I'm not sure is the part where you create a bunch of files in your tmp directory and then process those. Are you saying you're getting perl to create PHP code, and getting Apache to process those, and then returning the results, or that you're getting perl to create a batch command essentially? This is the problem.. I'm not just fetching a local php page, I am actually using Perl to generate a bunch of PHP commands, which I then want Apache to process on the way back to the client. Until a stable 2.0 Apache is out and I can use SetOutputFilter, I am left with (what I think is the only choice left...) creating a temporary file, under DOCUMENT_ROOT, putting the generated PHP into it, using LWP or friends to fetch that page throuh Apache, which will then parse the PHP with mod_php, and send that output back to the client via 'print $fetched_contents;' You'll be happier, and the code will run faster, if you use an Apache subrequest instead of a full-blown LWP request. If you're not familiar with subrequests, look up $r-lookup_uri() and $r-lookup_file() in the mod_perl docs and/or the Eagle book. -Ken Williams The Math Forum [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Post processing Perl output through PHP
[EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] said something to this effect on 07/14/2001: I am having a nightmare trying to get some PHP into the output of a Perl script. PHP. I've heard rumours of Apache 2.0 allowing multiple filters, which would be perfect when it's out, but not yet obviously. Add PHP support to your server, and use subrequests to get the results of the processing. Or, run PHP on another server, and use LWP to fetch pages from that server which will be included the output fromt he main server. (darren) -- I respect faith, but doubt is what gives you an education. -- Wilson Mizner
Re: Post processing Perl output through PHP
I am having a nightmare trying to get some PHP into the output of a Perl script. PHP. I've heard rumours of Apache 2.0 allowing multiple filters, which would be perfect when it's out, but not yet obviously. Add PHP support to your server, and use subrequests to get the results of the processing. Or, run PHP on another server, and use LWP to fetch pages from that server which will be included the output fromt he main server. Running PHP elsewhere is out of the question, as both the PHP and Perl code uses data stored on the system. By 'Add PHP support', if you mean adding PHP such that I can write and serve .php documents, then this is already in place, as most of the site is in PHP!, but if you mean something other than this... please explain more ? 'and use subrequests to get the results' Sorry for sounding stupid, but what exactly do you mean... ? I am calling the PHP CGI binary from inside Perl to get output, and it works fine from a shell, but not through Apache. Do you mean using lynx to fetch a page on the server to a file and use that.. ? That is the only solution I have found to date, calling lynx -dump with a http://localhost/ address to get Apache to return the PHP file to me, with all the correct PHP expansion. I can then read this output using the perl script and include it in my perl output, back to the browser. The problem comes in that I want to specify a host of different PHP commands in my Perl output, and get Apache to process them on the way back, so using this trick, I have to create (from the perl script) a bunch of temporary files containing PHP, somewhere (now globally writable) under the DOCUMENT_ROOT tree, fetch them using lynx again needing to use a writable area (although /tmp is fine here), and then include them in my output, and then clean up the files! There must be an easier way !!! Please help me... I've spent over 20 hours reading nearly every forum on phpbuilder.net and a whole host of other sites now, and I've found two others who have exactly the same problem as me, and having emailed them, they never found an elegant solution... they ended up re-writing all their code in one or the other. But I've got over 40,000 lines of Perl, and the entire rest of the site is in PHP, so this is an unbelievable task if I have to resort to it !?!?!? Help ??? J.
Re: Post processing Perl output through PHP
There must be an easier way !!! Sorry. :~) You could hack mod_proxy or mod_backhand and put PHP on a different server (or same server on different port). If you have to pick between the two, I recommend backhand (comes with a lot of other really nice features). http://www.backhand.org/ -sc Please help me... I've spent over 20 hours reading nearly every forum on phpbuilder.net and a whole host of other sites now, and I've found two others who have exactly the same problem as me, and having emailed them, they never found an elegant solution... they ended up re-writing all their code in one or the other. Yup, sorry. Apache 2.0 has filter support so this may be an easier solution in the future. I'm writing ruby-tmpl (mod_ruby module) that has output processing because this isn't an easy problem to solve. But I've got over 40,000 lines of Perl, and the entire rest of the site is in PHP, so this is an unbelievable task if I have to resort to it !?!?!? Bummer if this is for a company, you may want to look into an outside contracting firm to help you with this. ;~) http://www.mha.ca/ - These guys are great PHP contractors that I've used before. -sc -- Sean Chittenden PGP signature
RE: Post processing Perl output through PHP
I'm not entirely sure if I'm getting what you're asking here - I get the impression you want the Perl program to call the php script, such as http://localhost/script.php3 and get the results from that script which you then push into the results of your perl script, correct? The reason I'm not sure is the part where you create a bunch of files in your tmp directory and then process those. Are you saying you're getting perl to create PHP code, and getting Apache to process those, and then returning the results, or that you're getting perl to create a batch command essentially? This is the problem.. I'm not just fetching a local php page, I am actually using Perl to generate a bunch of PHP commands, which I then want Apache to process on the way back to the client. Until a stable 2.0 Apache is out and I can use SetOutputFilter, I am left with (what I think is the only choice left...) creating a temporary file, under DOCUMENT_ROOT, putting the generated PHP into it, using LWP or friends to fetch that page throuh Apache, which will then parse the PHP with mod_php, and send that output back to the client via 'print $fetched_contents;' Either way, the 'simple' way to do this is using LWP, as suggested by someone else on the list. Even if it's running on the same server, LWP will work just fine. LWP is a perl module that you can get on CPAN to do http requests for you. That is, directly in your perl program instead of using lynx, you can call to get another web page like so (untested): Ironically, having tried the suggestion from Darren, I discover that I don't have LWP installed. My sysadmin however, will install anything for me as long as I provide him with an RPM for it. I don't mean to sound lazy, and I have just checked rpmfind.net, but I can't quickly put my hands on an rpm which includes LWP::Simple for Red Hat 7.0 Assuming I sort this out, I think I will have found a way out, by creating a file with my PHP in, as described above. On another note, Apache.org mentions the 'forthcoming' stable release of 2.0. Does anybody have any idea of how long this will be... From what I read on the net, and the Apache FAQ, it will be very simple to specify that a certain directory will be filtered through another module, ie getting perl script output filtered through PHP by Apache before returning to the client. Perhaps somebody has experience with the beta release of Apache 2.0 ??? James.
Re: Post processing Perl output through PHP
Ironically, having tried the suggestion from Darren, I discover that I don't have LWP installed. My sysadmin however, will install anything for me as long as I provide him with an RPM for it. I don't mean to sound lazy, and I have just checked rpmfind.net, but I can't quickly put my hands on an rpm which includes LWP::Simple for Red Hat 7.0 ]- get checkinstall and install LWP on your computer as stated in the checkinstall docs and it will make the RPM for U :) http://mayams.net/~izto/checkinstall-en.html after u install checkinstall u have to do something like this : perl Makefile.pl make make test checkinstall make install HtH = iVAN [EMAIL PROTECTED] =
Re: Post processing Perl output through PHP
better, someone has written a makerpm.pl script which will build a .spec file for an RPM, from which you can build .src.rpm or .i386.rpm files... there is a version out there that works with rpm4, I won't post the it here in the hopes that someone who is maintaining a version _will_ speak up... basically it comes down to: /usr/src/redhat/SOURCES ./makerpm.pl --spec --source tarball.1.1.tgz /usr/src/redhat/SOURCES cd ../SPECS /usr/src/redhat/SPECS rpm -ba tarball-1.1.spec /usr/src/redhat/SPECS rpm -i ../RPMS/i386/perl-tarball-1.1.rpm I've typed the above from memory and may have botched filenames/syntaxes etc... search the list for similar and probably better examples.. On Sun, 15 Jul 2001, raptor wrote: Ironically, having tried the suggestion from Darren, I discover that I don't have LWP installed. My sysadmin however, will install anything for me as long as I provide him with an RPM for it. I don't mean to sound lazy, and I have just checked rpmfind.net, but I can't quickly put my hands on an rpm which includes LWP::Simple for Red Hat 7.0 ]- get checkinstall and install LWP on your computer as stated in the checkinstall docs and it will make the RPM for U :) http://mayams.net/~izto/checkinstall-en.html after u install checkinstall u have to do something like this : perl Makefile.pl make make test checkinstall make install HtH = iVAN [EMAIL PROTECTED] = -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] | Always bear in mind that your own resolution to http://BareMetal.com/ | success is more important than any other one web hosting since '95 | thing. - Abraham Lincoln
Re: Post processing Perl output through PHP
On Sun, Jul 15, 2001 at 10:49:30AM -0400, darren chamberlain wrote: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] said something to this effect on 07/14/2001: I am having a nightmare trying to get some PHP into the output of a Perl script. PHP. I've heard rumours of Apache 2.0 allowing multiple filters, which would be perfect when it's out, but not yet obviously. Add PHP support to your server, and use subrequests to get the results of the processing. How would you keep the subrequest from writing to the socket and, instead, to a buffer? Apache 2.0 has that that sort of possibility: implement a Perl output filter and configure it in front of a PHP content handler. I think you'd have to hack Apache 1.x to do this, kinda like the SSL modules have to. - Barrie
Post processing Perl output through PHP
Hi all, I am having a nightmare trying to get some PHP into the output of a Perl script. PHP. I've heard rumours of Apache 2.0 allowing multiple filters, which would be perfect when it's out, but not yet obviously. I've tried calling the CGI PHP from inside Perl in a few ways: == #!/usr/bin/perl $result = `/usr/bin/php -q EOF ?php echo Hello World; ? EOF `; print Content-Type: text/html\n\n; print PHP output was $result\n;exit; == I've also tried running this command as a system() call in Perl, and sending the output of /usr/bin/php to a temporary file, then using Perl to open and read the contents of that file. Both methods work if I call the script myself at a shell prompt. In the case of the file creation, an 11 byte file is duly created. However, when I call the perl script from a web browser, I lose the PHP output. The code given above doesn't help narrow it down, but in the case of the file creating version, I notice back at a shell prompt that the call to /usr/bin/php has made a 0 byte file... which obviously explains why I see nothing once Perl copies it to the output. So, that means there is something about /usr/bin/php that is making it generate absolutely no output when called via apache and the perl script. I am guessing that this has to do with the environment variables, as I can see no other way in which /usr/bin/php would be aware of a difference in its environment. So, my question is, does anybody know how to persuade PHP to give me the output when called in this way... perhaps by forging an environment variable from Perl first, or some clever command line switch... Alternatively, and much preferred, some way of parsing the whole of the perl output through PHP before returning to the browser. Then I could just print PHP tags in my Perl output and Apache/mod_php would handle the rest on the way back... For reasons that really aren't worth going into, I need to access some messy PHP functions from Perl, and I can't rewrite the PHP functions in Perl because I have .php pages that need them, and I can't rewrite the Perl scripts in PHP either. If I can't find a way of doing this, I will probably tear all my hair out and then sit down to rewrite a separate copy of every routine in Perl, and have two copies of all the code in two different languages... nightmare come true ! Please please help me !!! James [EMAIL PROTECTED]
