#!/usr/bin/env php /dev/null|grep -Po '^user.LOCATIONS=\"\K[^\\\"]+'")); // replace 'user' with say 'cache' or 'disk1' etc $replacement = str_replace('/mnt/user/', '/mnt/'.$realdisk.'/', $match[0]); if (!empty($realdisk) && is_file($replacement)) { // the replacement path (e.g. /mnt/disk1/domains/vmname/vdisk1.img) checks out so use it return $replacement; } } return $match[0]; }, $arg); }; array_shift($argv); array_walk($argv, 'detect_user_share'); $whole_cmd = ''; foreach ($argv as $arg) { $whole_cmd .= escapeshellarg($arg).' '; } echo trim($whole_cmd);