Newbie - Executing shell scripts

[glob]

I am new to PHP but need to take a crash course if I can achieve what I am trying to do...

Our company has a staff database on MS SQL Server.
Our email server is a Red Hat 8 Linux box.

I need to create a web inteface that will add staff to the database, then add a new user to the Linux box, rewrite the mail config files and then restart postfix.

Security to the web inteface will be very tight.

I have read conflicting views on executing shell scripts from php.
Is it possible?
Any pointers would be a big help.

Thanks.
Gordon

[dcrombie]

[php.net ]

;)

[Nova Reticulis]

I don't presume there is any chance you get rid of the ugliness entirely and just dump MS SQL entirely for the evil it is?

And, Postfix works good with MySQL dictionaries. Go-o-o-o-o-o-od :)

[glob]

Sorry the rest of our dev team use the MS SQL to drive a lot of ASP.net web apps.
I am just trying to save our network administrator a bit of time since he inherited the Linux box and isn't very clued up!

[charlier]

You could take a look at webmin it allows you to do a lot of unix admin chores through a web interface. It is well supported in Linux.