execute linux command and store the output in php array -

i making php website used monitor linux server, used linux commands memory usage (free) & (cat /proc/meminfo),for disk storage, network, users etc... can execute linux command php commands exec , shell_exec , back-tick, etc... how store output in php array ? , how move each element array string or int variable perform string or int functions on ?

i try ,

    // memort details array !!!     $last_line = exec('cat /proc/meminfo', $retval);    // return memory total    echo $retval[1];    echo "<br> <br>";     // move  memory total variable      $memory_total=$retval[0];     echo "<br> <br> memory total variable $memory_total <br><br> ";      implode($memory_total);       //this give me memory total in kb    echo  substr($memory_total,9);     echo "<br> <br>"; 

but want result in int variable , , if there better way that?

your life easy regular expressions.

<?php  // why cat in shell info 1 file? use right/easy function! $data = file_get_contents('/proc/meminfo');  // pcre save in many cases! preg_match_all("/^([^:]+):\s+([0-9]+)\s*([a-z]+)?$/umi",$data,$meminfo,preg_set_order);  // need here var_dump($meminfo); 

your question int , string common mistake not read section about types in php page. indicate read basic section manual many of questions data manipulation answered. php evaluate data types in accordance function used.