Escape a string to be used as a shell argument

Program execution Functions
escapeshellcmd
Program execution Functions
PHP Manual

# escapeshellarg

(PHP 4 >= 4.0.3, PHP 5)

escapeshellarg — Escape a string to be used as a shell argument

### Description

string escapeshellarg ( string `$arg` )

escapeshellarg() adds single quotes around a string and quotes/escapes any existing single quotes allowing you to pass a string directly to a shell function and having it be treated as a single safe argument. This function should be used to escape individual arguments to shell functions coming from user input. The shell functions include exec(), system() and the backtick operator.

### Parameters

`arg`

  The argument that will be escaped.

### Return Values

The escaped string.

### Examples

Example #1 escapeshellarg() example

`<?php
system('ls '.escapeshellarg($dir));
?>`

### See Also

- escapeshellcmd() - Escape shell metacharacters
- exec() - Execute an external program
- popen() - Opens process file pointer
- system() - Execute an external program and display the output
- backtick operator

Program execution Functions
escapeshellcmd
Program execution Functions
PHP Manual