PHP in a Nutshell

Name

virtual()

Synopsis

    bool virtual ( string filename )

The virtual() function performs a virtual request to the local Apache web server for a file, almost as if your script were a client itself. This request is processed and its output is sent back to your script. Note that you must be running Apache as the web server—this function does not work on other servers.

Using this method you can, for example, execute a Perl script from your PHP script or, for real weirdness, execute another PHP script from your PHP script. Although, for that purpose, you should probably use include() or require().

    // run a page counter Perl script
    virtual("counter.pl");