Symfony 7.4 Process Component

Overview

The Symfony Process component executes commands in sub-processes, providing a secure and cross-platform way to run external commands. It replaces PHP functions like exec(), passthru(), shell_exec(), and system() with proper argument escaping and OS difference handling.

Quick Reference

Installation

bash

composer require symfony/process

Basic Command Execution

php

use Symfony\Component\Process\Exception\ProcessFailedException;
use Symfony\Component\Process\Process;

$process = new Process(['ls', '-lsa']);
$process->run();

if (!$process->isSuccessful()) {
    throw new ProcessFailedException($process);
}

echo $process->getOutput();

Using mustRun() (throws on failure)

php

use Symfony\Component\Process\Exception\ProcessFailedException;
use Symfony\Component\Process\Process;

$process = new Process(['ls', '-lsa']);

try {
    $process->mustRun();
    echo $process->getOutput();
} catch (ProcessFailedException $exception) {
    echo $exception->getMessage();
}

Shell Command Execution

php

use Symfony\Component\Process\Process;

// Using fromShellCommandline for shell features (pipes, redirects, etc.)
$process = Process::fromShellCommandline('echo "$MESSAGE"');
$process->run(null, ['MESSAGE' => 'Hello World']);

echo $process->getOutput();

Asynchronous Execution

php

use Symfony\Component\Process\Process;

$process = new Process(['long-running-command']);
$process->start();

// Do other work while process runs...

$process->wait(); // Wait for completion
echo $process->getOutput();

Real-time Output with Callback

php

use Symfony\Component\Process\Process;

$process = new Process(['ls', '-lsa']);
$process->run(function ($type, $buffer): void {
    if (Process::ERR === $type) {
        echo 'ERR > '.$buffer;
    } else {
        echo 'OUT > '.$buffer;
    }
});

Process Timeout

php

use Symfony\Component\Process\Process;

$process = new Process(['long-command']);
$process->setTimeout(3600);      // Total timeout: 60 minutes
$process->setIdleTimeout(60);    // No output for 60 seconds
$process->run();

Sending Signals

php

use Symfony\Component\Process\Process;

$process = new Process(['find', '/', '-name', 'rabbit']);
$process->start();

$process->signal(SIGKILL);

Finding PHP Executable

php

use Symfony\Component\Process\PhpExecutableFinder;

$phpBinaryFinder = new PhpExecutableFinder();
$phpBinaryPath = $phpBinaryFinder->find();
// e.g., '/usr/local/bin/php'

Key Methods

Method	Purpose
`run()`	Execute synchronously
`mustRun()`	Execute synchronously, throw on failure
`start()`	Start asynchronously
`wait()`	Wait for async process completion
`isRunning()`	Check if process is running
`isSuccessful()`	Check if process completed successfully
`getOutput()`	Get complete stdout
`getErrorOutput()`	Get complete stderr
`stop(timeout, signal)`	Terminate process
`signal(signal)`	Send signal to process
`setTimeout(seconds)`	Set total timeout
`setIdleTimeout(seconds)`	Set idle timeout

Full Documentation

•GitHub: https://github.com/symfony/process
•Docs: https://symfony.com/doc/7.4/components/process.html
•Full Reference: See references/process.md for complete documentation