Run a shell script with an html button

Solution 1:

As stated by Luke you need to use a server side language, like php. This is a really simple php example:

<?php
if ($_GET['run']) {
  # This code will run if ?run=true is set.
  exec("/path/to/name.sh");
}
?>

<!-- This link will add ?run=true to your URL, myfilename.php?run=true -->
<a href="?run=true">Click Me!</a>

Save this as myfilename.php and place it on a machine with a web server with php installed. The same thing can be accomplished with asp, java, ruby, python, ...

Solution 2:

This is really just an expansion of BBB's answer which lead to to get my experiment working.

This script will simply create a file /tmp/testfile when you click on the button that says "Open Script".

This requires 3 files.

1. The actual HTML Website with a button.
2. A php script which executes the script
3. A Script

The File Tree:

root@test:/var/www/html# tree testscript/
testscript/
├── index.html
├── testexec.php
└── test.sh

1. The main WebPage:

root@test:/var/www/html# cat testscript/index.html
<form action="/testscript/testexec.php">
    <input type="submit" value="Open Script">
</form>

2. The PHP Page that runs the script and redirects back to the main page:

root@test:/var/www/html# cat testscript/testexec.php
<?php
shell_exec("/var/www/html/testscript/test.sh");
header('Location: http://192.168.1.222/testscript/index.html?success=true');
?>

3. The Script :

root@test:/var/www/html# cat testscript/test.sh

#!/bin/bash

touch /tmp/testfile