How can PHP handle shell commands effectively, especially when interacting with external servers like Minecraft?

To handle shell commands effectively in PHP, especially when interacting with external servers like Minecraft, you can use the `shell_exec()` function. This function allows you to execute shell commands and capture their output. Make sure to properly sanitize any user input to prevent command injection attacks.

// Example of executing a shell command to start a Minecraft server
$serverName = "MyMinecraftServer";
$command = "java -Xmx1024M -Xms1024M -jar server.jar nogui";
$output = shell_exec("screen -dmS $serverName $command");

// Check if the command was executed successfully
if($output === null){
    echo "Server started successfully!";
} else {
    echo "Error starting server: $output";
}