Question

I’m setting up a new server and of course I didn’t document every change I did to the last one but I’m getting there.

I have a weird issue, I’m trying to do a simple call in php:

exec('service httpd reload');

And it’s not doing anything. I can execute other commands such as tar, I did check php.ini for disabled_functions and it’s empty. The username php is using for creating files/folders is “apache” as well.

Does anyone know any other areas I can check? This is a fresh install of php 5.2.x so I’m sure there is a security setting in apache or something blocking this.

Answer 1

Well your apache is most probably running under a normal user account (www-data or apache – it depends on your distribution), but to restart apache (or any other service) you have to be root.

You could use sudo to elevate your privileges.