Alternatives to exec() or passthru()?

Hello, my previous webhost ninja-disabled gallery on all it's servers. Why? Apparently, the exec() function that gallery uses is a security flaw for linux servers. Via exec() function any linux command can be executed and poses a great risk to the server and hence been disbaled. It was suggested that you can bypass this with the passthru() function, but that does exactly the same thing as exec(), posing the same risk. The admins said that someone can run a script posing as user "nobody" causing great risk. It seems that a few more webhosts have adopted this as well (i've gone through two hosts already...). My suggestion would be to find a way to get around from using the exec() function for Gallery 2. This way, hosts won't be so paranoid about us commonfolk who just want to post our pictures.

Cryo, your webhost is paranoid and from the sound of things, shouldn't really be in the webhosting business. A properly configured webserver, especially if it is intentionally configured for multi-user webhosting, should have no security issues with allowing users to use exec() or passthru(). Web hosting services which restrict those functions are just too lazy to configure their servers.

h0bbel's correct about G2, however. GD support has already been added, however in my own experience, GD is much slower than using NetPBM or ImageMagick via exec(), and it must be specifically enabled in PHP.

Never use Hosting-pp.com webhosting service. This web hosting is so terrible that it is just not worth the time and effort fighting these morons on the most simple tasks.