possible to execute system command on remote host?

[dan baker]

I have a couple clients with domains on a remote host that uses cPanel
for domain management. I use a basic old version of ws_ftp to
upload/download files. So far everything has been mostly fine.

Lately the host has gotten increasingly slow in making minor tweaks to
accounts; such as creating a symbolic link to the statistics directory
which is not under the www dir by default for instance. what I am
wondering is if I can use a perl script to execute a system command
like:
ln -s testlink somedir

possible?

d

 

[Matt Garrish]

what I am
wondering is if I can use a perl script to execute a system command
like:
ln -s testlink somedir

Anything is possible, but in your case probably not likely to work. Since
you don't mention shell access, and as it wouldn't have necessitated your
posting here, I'll assume that that is not an option. So, all you can do is
create a mini script that attempts that system call and see whether it
succeeds or not (call it up in your browser of choice, since you have no
other way of executing scripts remotely). What luck you will have depends on
what commands your host has given access to to the anonymous web user (and
allowing users to create symbolic links anywhere they want on the system is
surely not a good thing).

Matt

 

[Tad McClellan]

what I am
wondering is if I can use a perl script to execute a system command
like:
ln -s testlink somedir

You do not need a "system command", you can make symbolic
links with native Perl:

perldoc -f symlink

possible?

Try it and see.