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Home/ Questions/Q 681295
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Editorial Team
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Editorial Team
Asked: May 14, 20262026-05-14T01:28:04+00:00 2026-05-14T01:28:04+00:00

I have the following PHP script: <?php $fortune = `fortune`; echo $fortune; ?> but

  • 0

I have the following PHP script:

<?php
  $fortune = `fortune`;
  echo $fortune;
?>

but the output is simply blank (no visible errors thrown).

However, if I run php -a, it works:

php > echo `fortune`;
Be careful of reading health books, you might die of a misprint.
        -- Mark Twain
php >

Am I missing a config directive or something that would cause this?

Edit: So, I tried running my script using $ php-cgi fortunetest.php and it worked as expected. Maybe the issue is with Apache2?

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  1. Editorial Team
    Editorial Team
    2026-05-14T01:28:04+00:00Added an answer on May 14, 2026 at 1:28 am

    Anyways, I found the solution: fortune lived in /usr/games, so I thought it might be a $PATH issue, but when I did su www-data and ran $ fortune it worked as expected, and /usr/games was in $PATH. Apparently, Apache was using a different $PATH variable even though it was running under user www-data, so I rewrote the script to use /usr/games/fortune instead of plain fortune and it worked. Since fortune wasn’t the point of the script, it was kind of a waste of time, but lesson learned.

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