Uploading shapefile to PostGIS database using PHP

Question

I want to insert a shapefile into a PostGIS database using PHP. I go through the examples and I tried the following:

$command = 'shp2pgsql -s 2100 -d /D:\CHECK DATA-group\2016\Ayomi\JULY\12FCP151Sup88Sh99\121800151s00088s0099\CM121800151s00088s0099Poly.shp | psql -h localhost -p 5432 -d ssh -U postgres';

But it is not working. Then in the forum, I saw an instruction to add the exec($command,$out,$ret); to the above code. Can any one explain me what is meant by $out,$ret variables?

Answer 1

psql requires password to be entered which you can supply by creating a .pgpass file.

or by setting the PGPASSWORD environment variable (Not recommended as per docs)

Use of this environment variable is not recommended for security reasons, as some operating systems allow non-root users to see process environment variables via ps; instead consider using a password file

But for a quick check you can try adding

putenv('PGPASSWORD=password');
getenv('PGPASSWORD');

in your php code before the command.

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From PHP Docs

output

If the output argument is present, then the specified array will be filled with every line of output from the command. Trailing whitespace, such as \n, is not included in this array. Note that if the array already contains some elements, exec() will append to the end of the array. If you do not want the function to append elements, call unset() on the array before passing it to exec().

return_var

If the return_var argument is present along with the output argument, then the return status of the executed command will be written to this variable.

check the $out and $ret variables for the output and status of the executed command.