How to call `strat` and `brl` commands from PHP?

[sxiii]

Greetings.

I'm trying to use PHP shell_exec() function to run strat commands:

<?php
$output = `cat /etc/os-release`;
$output1 = `strat arch cat /etc/os-release`;
echo "<pre>hello debian: $output</pre><pre>hello arch: $output1</pre>";
?>

There is Caddy web server installed in Arch and PHP+PHP-FPM (FastCGI) Installed on debian. I'm getting the output from Debian OK, but no output from Arch:

hello debian: PRETTY_NAME="Debian GNU/Linux 9 (stretch)"
NAME="Debian GNU/Linux"
VERSION_ID="9"
... ... ... some more version info ... ... ...
hello arch: 

So, seems like all CHROOT-related commands, like "strat" and "brl" are unavailable under PHP shell_exec. Is there any way realistically I could allow these commands to be run, or, at least, the PHP interpreter to execute scripts/files/programs on both stratas?

Thanks a lot!

[paradigm]

I don't know PHP at all, but some general ideas that may help:

• Generally system binaries are detected by searching the $PATH environment variable. Something about your PHP setup might be (re)setting this to something that doesn't include Bedrock-specific entries. See if you can find where that's happening and include Bedrock's entries as you'll find them from things like echo $PATH.
• PHP might use something other than the $PATH variable, in which case you'd need to configure that to include Bedrock $PATH entries.
• As an alternative $PATH and $PATH-like things, you can probably just provide the full path to the binary. Try running command -v <command> in a shell to find a given command. For example, instead of strat, try /bedrock/bin/strat. Instead of pacman, try /bedrock/cross/bin/pacman.
• For your specific example of strat arch cat /etc/os-release, I'd recommend doing cat /bedrock/strata/arch/etc/os-release instead, as it's more explicit. My guess is your goal there is to read Arch's /etc/os-release, not necessarily to use Arch's cat (and happen to get Arch's /etc/os-release as a side-effect).
• Modeling this in terms of whether or not something is CHROOT related is probably setting you on the wrong track. Whatever is going is likely in terms of local stratum binaries, cross-stratum binaries, and /bedrock/bin binaries.

[sxiii]

Wow! I think you're right about PATH. Was too lazy to fiddle with that; so I made this really easy and fast fix based on your instructions:

$output1 = `/bedrock/bin/strat arch cat /etc/os-release`;

Now when I check the PHP file, I got:

hello debian: PRETTY_NAME="Debian GNU/Linux 9 (stretch)"
NAME="Debian GNU/Linux"
... ...
hello arch: NAME="Arch Linux"
PRETTY_NAME="Arch Linux"
ID=arch
BUILD_ID=rolling
... ...

This was actually just a test try, I will use both full paths; as well as running programs from other distros; just wanted to know what are my options.

Thank you so much @paradigm 👍🏻 Very quick and in-depth answer. 💯