whois problem with dutch registry

[jamesbond]

For unlimited requests the dutch registry requires us to connect to their whois db with the following command:

whois -h whois.domain-registry.nl 'is domain.nl'

(we have to use the 'is' command)

Now I want to use php to do this, but I don't want the output directly to the browser, I want to store it in a string and filter it.

How can I do this?

If I use system or passthru then the result is stored to the browser no matter what I try.

Any ideas?

[Gaheris]

shell_exec or the backtip operator

[jamesbond]

shell_exec or the backtip operator

Thanks Gaheris, I just stumbled upon the shell_exec function myself
Everything works now!