Title: potential issue with WP Engine hosting
Last modified: August 22, 2016

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# potential issue with WP Engine hosting

 *  [toddheitner](https://wordpress.org/support/users/toddheitner/)
 * (@toddheitner)
 * [11 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/potential-issue-with-wp-engine-hosting/)
 * Hi, I’m about to move to WP Engine for hosting and I ran a compatibility check
   to see if there is anything on my current site that won’t work there. WP-Property
   seems like it may have problems there. Here are the pieces of code that are said
   to be likely to have problems:
 * exec( ‘nohup curl “‘ . $url . ‘” > /dev/null 2>&1 &’ );
 * dl() functions
 * I don’t know what these functions do exactly so I don’t know how critical they
   are but I wanted to see if there might be alternative ways of coding it that 
   won’t have issues on WP Engine.
 * Thanks,
    Todd
 * [https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-property/](https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-property/)

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)

 *  [Jason Cosper](https://wordpress.org/support/users/boogah/)
 * (@boogah)
 * [11 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/potential-issue-with-wp-engine-hosting/#post-5584904)
 * I can confirm that both `exec()` and `dl()` do not work on sites hosted on WP
   Engine servers.
 * Since the `exec()` example you posted is just firing up cURL, I suggest using
   the [WordPress HTTP API](https://codex.wordpress.org/HTTP_API) or [PHP: cURL](http://php.net/manual/en/book.curl.php)
   in its place.
 * As for `dl()`, it has actually been [deprecated and removed](http://php.net/manual/en/function.dl.php)
   in PHP 5.3 and newer. WP Engine only runs PHP 5.3 and higher.
 * On top of that, there are security issues that can come from using `dl()` in 
   web accessible code. The alternative laid out in [this serverfault thread](http://serverfault.com/questions/453590/alternatives-to-dl-in-php)
   won’t work at WP Engine, unfortunately, as custom `php.ini` files are not permitted.
 * Hope this helps!
 *  Plugin Contributor [Maxim Peshkov](https://wordpress.org/support/users/maximpeshkov/)
 * (@maximpeshkov)
 * [11 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/potential-issue-with-wp-engine-hosting/#post-5585145)
 * Hello,
 * Regarding code:
 * `exec( 'nohup curl "' . $url . '" > /dev/null 2>&1 &' );`
 * It belongs to XML Importer premium feature and is being run in very specific 
   cases. The import process in XMLI is complex and uses WordPress HTTP API by default
   for doing requests. Note, server on importing data is doing HTTP requests to 
   itself ( to upload property images on separate request ). But, in fact, this 
   solution may not work on some servers. Among the possible reasons:
    - Server doesn’t have DNS, and so it can’t figure out who “example.com” is, 
      even though it is *itself*.
    - Server administrators, in a misguided attempt at security, have blocked “loopback”
      requests, so it can’t actually make a call back to itself.
    - Server is running something called “mod_security” or similar, which actively
      blocks the call due to brain-dead configuration.
    - Something else.
 * When it happens, images for imported properties may not be uploaded. For this
   case, we XML Importer has option “Run system command cron instead of PHP cron.(
   Attention, enable the option only if listings are not being published but added
   to Draft status. )”. This option disables WordPress HTTP requests and enables
   exec(), you mentioned about.
 * So, if you do not use XML Importer feature or option above is disabled you will
   not have any issues with it.
 * _Some additional information:_
    The current issue is VERY similar to ALTERNATIVE_WP_CRON
   setting. Here is some related links for more details:
    - [Alternative WP Cron](http://codex.wordpress.org/Editing_wp-config.php#Alternative_Cron)
    - [Alternative WP Cron Issues](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/scheduled-posts-still-not-working-in-282?replies=13#post-1175405)
 * Regarding code:
    `dl()`
 * The current function has never been used in WP-Property. Plugin contains some
   third-party libraries, like XML library, which can be found in
 * `/third-party/XML`
 * This library is being used for some specific cases and contains dl() function.
   But WP-Property does not use the method where the function is called. So you 
   should not worry about it.
 * Regards.

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)

The topic ‘potential issue with WP Engine hosting’ is closed to new replies.

 * ![](https://s.w.org/plugins/geopattern-icon/wp-property_c36510.svg)
 * [WP-Property - WordPress Powered Real Estate and Property Management](https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-property/)
 * [Frequently Asked Questions](https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-property/#faq)
 * [Support Threads](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/wp-property/)
 * [Active Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/wp-property/active/)
 * [Unresolved Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/wp-property/unresolved/)
 * [Reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/wp-property/reviews/)

 * 2 replies
 * 3 participants
 * Last reply from: [Maxim Peshkov](https://wordpress.org/support/users/maximpeshkov/)
 * Last activity: [11 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/potential-issue-with-wp-engine-hosting/#post-5585145)
 * Status: not resolved