ESCAPESHELLARG(3) 1 ESCAPESHELLARG(3) escapeshellarg - Escape a string to be used as a shell argument SYNOPSIS string escapeshellarg (string $arg) DESCRIPTION escapeshellarg(3) 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(3), system(3) and the backtick operator. On Windows, escapeshellarg(3) instead removes percent signs, replaces double quotes with spaces and adds double quotes around the string. PARAMETERS o $arg - The argument that will be escaped. RETURN VALUES The escaped string. EXAMPLES Example #1 escapeshellarg(3) example <?php system('ls '.escapeshellarg($dir)); ?> SEE ALSO escapeshellcmd(3), exec(3), popen(3), system(3), backtick operator. PHP Documentation Group ESCAPESHELLARG(3)