Class it:

/**
 * Construct shell command using it::shell_command, log it, execute it and return output as string.
 * @param $cmd shell command to be executed. String may contain:
 *   {keyword} quotes and inserts value from assoc array like ET()
 *   {0} .. {9} quotes and inserts positional arguments
 *   {-opts} array of opts => {value,true,false,null}: it::exec('ls {-opts}', ['-opts' => ["-l" => true]]);
 * @param $cmd Format string with {keywords} a la ET()
 * @param $args varargs, contains key => val arrays or positionals for filling in cmd line. val=null expands to nothing
 *   '_callback' optional closure, $fn($cmd) => print("$cmd\n") for echo, => !print($cmd) for echo and suppress
 * @return output of command. shell errors not detectable, consider it::system or see  /www/server/log/error_log
 */
static function exec($cmd, ...$args)
{
    $args = array_reduce($args, fn($carry, $v) => array_merge($carry, (array)$v), []); # varargs to single array
    $cmd = it::shell_command($cmd, $args); # NOPHPLINT
    $before = gettimeofday(true);

    if ((!($args['_callback'] instanceof Closure) || $args['_callback']($cmd)) && !EDC('noexec'))
        $result = (string)shell_exec("set +o posix\n" . $cmd);

    @it::log('exec', round((gettimeofday(true) - $before)*1000) . "\t$cmd");

    return $result;
}