Bash scripts can simplify many OS-oriented tasks for PHP developers. Even better, you can run Bash scripts directly from PHP, passing arguments, arrays, and receiving output that you can analyze or display.
by Octavia Andreea Anghel
February 2, 2009
his article discusses how to install and configure three Bash distributions for Windows: the GNU BASH shell for Windows, the Win-Bash Windows port, and the Cygwin tool. It also demonstrates how to execute Bash scripts using PHP, how to send different types of arguments to a Bash script, how to use Bash functions from PHP, and how to save results to a text file. (For information about other Bash distributions, see the sidebar Bash Availability.)
Download and Configure GNU Bash Shell for Windows
First, download the GNU Bash shell for Windows. The tool is ready to use immediately after you extract the ZIP archive in your favorite location (for example, C:\bash-2.03\). To simplify calling Bash, you can add the bash.exe path to your CLASSPATH setting.
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his article discusses how to install and configure three Bash distributions for Windows: the GNU BASH shell for Windows, the Win-Bash Windows port, and the Cygwin tool. It also demonstrates how to execute Bash scripts using PHP, how to send different types of arguments to a Bash script, how to use Bash functions from PHP, and how to save results to a text file. (For information about other Bash distributions, see the sidebar 
