How to run multiple linux command using PHP

Question

is it possible to run multiple linux command using PHP. I am using Mongodb database and if I want to import multiple collections, I am running the following command for each collection individually.

mongoimport --db test --collection colour --file colour.json
mongoimport --db test --collection shape --file shape.json
mongoimport --db test --collection size --file size.json

Now I have at least 10 collections and I have to run each of them individually in linux command line. There should be a better way to do this. What I am thinking is to write a php script which will do this for me.

Any idea, suggestions will be really helpful. Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

You could have PHP create all of the shell commands beforehand and then run them all at once:

$collections = array('color', 'shape', 'size');
$command = '';

foreach($collections as $collection) {
    $command .= 'mongoimport --db test --collection ' . $collection . ' --file ' . $collection . '.json; ';
}

shell_exec($command);

This eliminates multiple calls to shell_exec(). However, perhaps mongoimport is available in the PHP mongo API.

Answer 2

You can run OS command-line commands from a PHP script using shell-exec. See http://php.net/manual/en/function.shell-exec.php.