Creating ZIP files using Perl inside a PHP file

Create ZIP file using Perl inside php

[Nurples]

Hello,
I've never used Perl scripts before and I need a little help. I'm building a site in PHP that will allow users to select images. I need the selected images to be added to a zip file. I can't use the PHP Zip functions as I can't get the ZZIPlib libary installed on the server. I do believe I can use Perl to create a zip file with the selected files.

Problem I have is that I don't understand how to add perl codes to my PHP file as I've never used them. Could someone please give me a short and simple (if possible) explination on how to do this?

[rocknbil]

Welcome aboard Nurples, run an exec() [us.php.net] or system() [us.php.net] command on the Perl file? Be sure to chmod the perl file to 755, it needs to be executable.

[Nurples]

Thanks, I'll give that a shot. Part of my problem may be that the file permissions are not 755. :)

[rocknbil]

Yeah, it's different with perl. Another possible challenge you may encounter, some servers don't allow execution of perl "just anywhere" like PHP. It may need to be in the cgi-bin directory, a restricted location for executable scripts.

When referring to a script via exec/system, be aware it's not the same as a URL. Example,

document root: /var/www/example.com/httpdocs

/cgi-bin/test.cgi
script.php
/directory/executed-from-here.php

**sometimes** it's OK to execute test.cgi from executed-from-here.php like

exec('../cgi-bin/test.cgi');

Calling that script from the web will be fine with the same link, but if you're in the (good, IMO) habit of using domain relative links in your pages,

/cgi-bin/test.cgi

when put in an exec/system command, this will attempt to access the script from /var in the example above. So the most portable method might be

exec($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'].'/cgi-bin/test.cgi');

[coopster]

I may be off base here but if the zip library is not installed then perl won't be an answer either.