Bash in php exec in webpage don't colors for png and mp3 files on Linux

Question

I have code like this in php:

header("Content-Type: text/plain");
exec("/bin/bash -c 'ls --color=always'", $result);
echo implode("\n", $result);

and I've got result (escape is not visible)

Makefile
README
Yann Tiersen - Comptine d'un autre ete L'apres midi.mp3
bush-src.js
bush.js
bush.min.js
[0m[01;34mcgi-bin[0m
config.json
[01;34mcss[0m
favicon.ico
foo.png
index.php
[01;34mlib[0m
ls.txt
test.php
test.php~
[01;32mtest.txt[0m

It show ANSI escape codes for directories and executable files, but when I call from command line

php -r "exec('bash -c \"ls --color=always\"', \$result);echo implode(\"\\n\", \$result);" | less

I've got this:

bush.js
bush.min.js
bush-src.js
ESC[0mESC[01;34mcgi-binESC[0m
config.json
ESC[01;34mcssESC[0m
favicon.ico
ESC[01;35mfoo.pngESC[0m
index.php
ESC[01;34mlibESC[0m
ls.txt
Makefile
README
test.php
test.php~
ESC[01;32mtest.txtESC[0m
ESC[00;36mYann Tiersen - Comptine d'un autre ete L'apres midi.mp3ESC[0m

png and mp3 have ANSI escapes codes, why php exec from webpage don't give that as return?

Answer 1

You probably have a $LS_COLORS environment variable defined somewhere in your ~/.bashrc/~/.zshrc... (probably via a call of eval "$(dircolors)").

The php that you run on the command-line will inherit your shell's environment, including that $LS_COLORS variable.

While the one started by apache2 will inherit apache2's environment which is unlikely to have $LS_COLORS in it. bash doesn't read ~/.bashrc (and anyway that would be the ~/.bashrc of the user running apache if it did) when not run interactively (except in corner cases like when invoked by sshd/rshd/telnetd).

Note that php's exec() already starts a shell, so you don't need to start another one (especially bash which is the slowest shell in the west).

 exec('ls --color=always', $result);

should be enough.

$ strace -fe execve php -r 'exec("bash -c echo\ test");'
execve("/usr/bin/php", ["php", "-r", "exec(\"bash -c echo\\ test\");"], [/* 49 vars */]) = 0
[pid  3608] execve("/bin/sh", ["sh", "-c", "bash -c echo\\ test"], [/* 49 vars */]) = 0
[pid  3608] execve("/bin/bash", ["bash", "-c", "echo test"], [/* 48 vars */]) = 0

Answer 2

that's because it's not sending html but text

Answer 3

In my .bashrc file there is:

if [ -x /usr/bin/dircolors ]; then
    eval "`dircolors -b`"
fi

which color the files.