Title: requires exec()
Last modified: August 22, 2016

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# requires exec()

 *  Resolved [Ticki](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ticki/)
 * (@ticki)
 * [11 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/requires-exec-1/)
 * Hey,
    I looked through the FAQ of my webhost and it said that I need to manually
   switch to the CGI variant of PHP to use exec() because it’s blocked in the normal
   PHP due to security concerns. In order to do that I would need to
 * A) Give the relevant files the .phpx ending
 * B) Create a .htaccess file in the relevant directory with “AddHandler php53-cgi.
   php”
 * I have absolutely no idea which file endings I should edit or where to put the.
   htaccess file to actually enable exec(). I can’t put in website/wp_content/ewww
   because that’s not allowed.
 * [https://wordpress.org/plugins/ewww-image-optimizer/](https://wordpress.org/plugins/ewww-image-optimizer/)

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)

 *  Plugin Author [Shane Bishop](https://wordpress.org/support/users/nosilver4u/)
 * (@nosilver4u)
 * [11 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/requires-exec-1/#post-5879826)
 * I’m pretty sure that won’t work for WordPress, I would check with your webhost
   to see if anyone has ever successfully done that.
 *  Thread Starter [Ticki](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ticki/)
 * (@ticki)
 * [11 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/requires-exec-1/#post-5879863)
 * They just said that I should rewrite the permissions and go with the .htaccess
   method. =/
 *  Thread Starter [Ticki](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ticki/)
 * (@ticki)
 * [11 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/requires-exec-1/#post-5879881)
 * So I just tried adding a .htaccess file to /website/wp-content/ewww or to website/
   wp-content/plugins/ewww-image-optimizer and it seems like it did absolutely nothing.
 * I still get the message that exec() is required.
 *  Plugin Author [Shane Bishop](https://wordpress.org/support/users/nosilver4u/)
 * (@nosilver4u)
 * [11 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/requires-exec-1/#post-5879882)
 * You would need to apply the changes to the root of your wordpress install (if
   it will work at all).
 *  Thread Starter [Ticki](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ticki/)
 * (@ticki)
 * [11 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/requires-exec-1/#post-5879888)
 * The FAQ warns me about running the whole website on PHP-CGI “because for more
   complex operations the processes could be terminated.” Whatever that means.
 * I tried it anyway and it seemed to work. Do you have any idea what they’re talking
   about with that warning?
 *  Plugin Author [Shane Bishop](https://wordpress.org/support/users/nosilver4u/)
 * (@nosilver4u)
 * [11 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/requires-exec-1/#post-5879889)
 * not really, unless they mean that if you use up too much cpu/ram they’ll terminate
   the process, but that shouldn’t be a big deal so long as you behave yourself 
   and make use of the throttling options if you do a Bulk Optimize.

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)

The topic ‘requires exec()’ is closed to new replies.

 * ![](https://ps.w.org/ewww-image-optimizer/assets/icon-256x256.png?rev=1582276)
 * [EWWW Image Optimizer](https://wordpress.org/plugins/ewww-image-optimizer/)
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## Tags

 * [exec](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/exec/)

 * 6 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [Shane Bishop](https://wordpress.org/support/users/nosilver4u/)
 * Last activity: [11 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/requires-exec-1/#post-5879889)
 * Status: resolved