Hello, is it possible to open a stream in which I can write commands
and read output from them to a shell like bash?  I want to do this
because this program can not be completed with just a `backtick` or
shell_exec() command, as it's somewhat user-interactive.

As an example, let's say I want to get cdecl to explain to me what
"char *horse" means.  I would type:

# <i>cdecl</i>
Type `help' or `?' for help
cdecl> <i>explain char *horse</i>
declare horse as pointer to char
cdecl> <i>exit</i>

...where input is surrounded by <i>these</i>.  This would be difficult
or impossible to do with shell_exec, especially if halfway-through you
have to do some calculating before you can know what to ask cdecl
next.

So I want to know whether you can somehow open a stream to a shell,
and execute commands there.  Like...

$fp = fopen('/bin/bash', 'rw');
$output = fgets($fp);
fputs($fp, 'cdecl');
$output = fgets($fp);
$output = fgets($fp);
fputs($fp, 'explain char *horse');
$expl = fgets($fp);
/* Right now you could do some calculations and figure out what to do next. */
$output = fgets($fp);
fputs($fp, 'exit');
$output = fgets($fp);
fclose($fp);

Now this obviously wouldn't work, as it would overwrite the bash
executable if you had proper access, but it's just to get the idea
across.

So, does anyone know how I can do this?

-- 
Joel Kitching
http://midgardmanga.keenspace.com/

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