shell_exec returns empty string

Question

When I execute my command in PHP with shell_exec it always returns an empty string. I tried shell_exec(\'ls -l\'); and it works. I put the command as

Answer 1

I changed the sudoers to ALL ALL = (ALL) :NOPASSWD ALL (very un-secure, but just to find something sure to work),

then I did a

sudo -u myusername /path/to/script.sh

where script.sh has export VAR=value export VAR=value

for all the environmental variables that are necessary (you can do a printenv from a user who can properly pacmd to see what you need. probably a good HOME and maybe an XAUTHORITY).

hope that helps