Question

I have a problem, i was using a PHP class on our shared hosting environment that calls wkhtmltopdf to generate PDF files, due to server attacks the Host disabled proc_open and shell_Exec and all functions that could cause problems if used by an attacker. All was working fine before the Host disabled those functions. In the PHP class that I use there’s the method below that does not work anymore due to the disabling of the proc_open function. Is there any altenative that I could use in the place of the method below that will return the exact results? Any help highly appreciated.

private static function _pipeExec($cmd,$input=''){
                        $proc=proc_open($cmd,array(0=>array('pipe','r'),1=>array('pipe','w'),2=>array('pipe','w')),$pipes);
                        fwrite($pipes[0],$input);
                        fclose($pipes[0]);
                        $stdout=stream_get_contents($pipes[1]);
                        fclose($pipes[1]);
                        $stderr=stream_get_contents($pipes[2]);
                        fclose($pipes[2]);
                        $rtn=proc_close($proc);
                        return array(
                                        'stdout'=>$stdout,
                                        'stderr'=>$stderr,
                                        'return'=>$rtn
                                );
                }

Answer 1

The disable_functions setting can only be changed in php.ini itself, which means that it’s server wide and applies to ALL sites on a shared host.

Here are your options:

1. You can ask your current hosting provider to move your site to a dedicated machine (or VPS).

2. Go somewhere else, find a provider that doesn’t have these limitations; this takes some time, but might be worth it.

3. DIY. Setting up a server is not recommended unless you know what you’re doing, but if you do, then any platform hosting provider will do; nowadays you can run a small dedicated site for about $5,- per month on Amazon.

The last option also buys you the option of “outsourcing” the PDF generation so that the rest of your site still runs on your current host.