Hey Guys,

<background>
I'm wanting to streamline some particular component of my work, and it's lead me to some unfamiliar territory. This is something I started to work on about 3 years ago but didn't fully implement.
</background>

I want to convert a WAV file to a MP3 file through a php interface. Assuming the file has already been uploaded, I'm guessing I'll need to run some kind of Linux application on the server using exec(). Since I'm not a Linux user, my question is how do I get a program that I need (will I need to compile something?) onto the server so that it works? Or is there a better way?

I don't anticipate any restrictions on running an executable. I ran the script:

<?php
// outputs the username that owns the running php/httpd process
// (on a system with the "whoami" executable in the path)
echo exec('whoami');
?>

and it output the correct information, so I'll assume the executable functionality is working on my host.

Is a linux executable also a .exe file?
(I'm looking at these precompiled binaries)

I have no idea. I'm using 1and1.com hosting and I just see "Linux Hosting". Everything is remote so I have no interface other than exec()

I've used sox and ffmpeg to convert files to/from different audio formats. Try a "whereis sox" and "whereis ffmpeg" to see if they're installed.

Just do ./configure --prefix=~/local && make && make install

now I get "configure: error: expected an absolute directory name for --prefix: ~/local"

{"name":"601331","src":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/b\/a\/bae2283dbf42f7061dcdb9208e69c814.png","w":694,"h":124,"tn":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/b\/a\/bae2283dbf42f7061dcdb9208e69c814"}

nifty.

Ok, I found my abs path with <?php echo realpath(''); ?>, ran the command, a bunch of stuff flew by, and it looked like it compiled. It took about 40 seconds.

I'm assuming it installed correctly as I didn't see any error messages, but I'm not able to use lame as a command.

(uiserver):u49203781:~/lame-3.98.4 > % lame source_file.wav output_file.mp3
-bash: fg: %: no such job

I tried "whereis lame" and it returned "lame:", and made sure source_file.wav is in the lame-3.98.4 directory, but no change.

If in same directory:
./lame source_file.wav output_file.mp3

Else:
~/local/bin/lame source_file.wav output_file.mp3

Or wherever you put it.

Alrightie, I have successfully converted a wav to mp3!

the command I used was:
~/local/bin/lame ./source_file.wav ./output_file.mp3
and I was in the directory containing source_file.wav (obviously)

just for the record, these were some key points I learned:

• ~ is the root (not the absolute path root, however)

• . is the current directory

• installed executables aren't automatically added to any environment-type path.

• the lame executable is located in the local/bin directory, not the directory that I created when I unzipped the lame.tar.gz file. I guess that any executables that I install should also be located in the bin directory.

and now...
<?php exec("~/local/bin/lame ./source_file.wav ./destination_file.mp3"); ?>
and it works!

Thanks a lot, everybody.

Also, I can now delete the lame.tar.gz and all the stuff in the lame-3.98.4, right? So it's just like I downloaded an installer, like I would on Windows, and now that it's installed I can erase it, right?

I'm a newb, in this territory, btw.

Arguments are understood to be relative to the current directory, so the ./ is extraneous on them. The point worth noting is that the local directory is not in the search path for executables unless you explicitly add it. (And few people rarely do that.)

It's just like you downloaded the source, compiled it, and moved the executable to another directory on Windows. So yes, you can delete the source and the tar file.

If you had root privileges, you wouldn't have had to set the prefix to a local directory, and it would have been installed in /usr/local/bin which would have been part of the search path.

I think that extension is only useful for querying media information.

xeyes

Um, it really depends on what you want to do. Most of them have specific purposes.

Over ssh, hopefully X forwarding is on, and it'd work just fine not that you'd want to.