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Using PHP from the command line

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PHP手册 - N: Using PHP from the command line

User contributed notes:

me at unreal4u dot com (26-Oct-2011 05:28)

You could use the Linux way of knowing that everything went ok by dying with a numeric code: 0 if everything went ok and practically anything else if something goes terribly wrong. That way;

<?php // hello.php
echo 'hello';
exit(0);
?>
<?php // bye.php
echo 'bye';
exit(1);
?>
<?php // hello-again.php
echo 'hi world!';
exit(0);
?>

calling:
php hello.php && php bye.php && php hello-again.php

would only execute the first two scripts, the last one doesn't get executed because an error ocurred in that script.

Greetings.

Kodeart (29-Aug-2011 10:03)

Check directly without calling functions:
<?php
if (PHP_SAPI === 'cli')
{
   // ...
}
?>

You can define a constant to use it elsewhere
<?php
define('ISCLI', PHP_SAPI === 'cli');
?>

Anonymous (23-Aug-2011 11:42)

Instead of all these long and .. interesting .. ways to check if you're running from cli, you could always do this:

<?php
function isCli() {
    return php_sapi_name()==="cli";
}
?>

colet at llsys dot com (29-Jul-2011 03:34)

If checking defined('STDIN') is inconsistent, you could try:
<?php
empty($_SERVER['SHELL']) && die('shells only please');
?>
I haven't tested this on windows.

mniewerth at ultimediaos dot com (25-Jul-2011 03:02)

Regarding the way about the PHP CLI detection, i found out that a test on STDIN will not deliver correct results in every circumstances. That is if we execute the CGI version of PHP on the command line interface, the "defined('STDIN')"-statement will return false. Here is my method to detect the CLI mode.

<?php
class CliCheck
{
    /**
     * Advanced PHP-CLI mode check.
     *
     * @return boolean    Returns true if PHP is running from the CLI or else false.
     *
     * @access public
     * @static
     */
    public static function isCli()
    {
        // If STDIN was not defined and PHP is running as CGI module
        // we can test for the environment variable TERM. This
        // should be a right way how to test the circumstance under
        // what mode PHP is running.
        if(!defined('STDIN') && self::isCgi()) {
            // STDIN was not defined, but if the environment variable TERM
            // is set, it is save to say that PHP is running from CLI.
            if(getenv('TERM')) {
                return true;
            }
            // Now return false, because TERM was not set.
            return false;
        }
        return defined('STDIN');
    }   

    /**
     * Simple PHP-CGI mode check.
     *
     * (DSO = Dynamic Shared Object)
     *
     * @link http://httpd.apache.org/docs/current/dso.html DSO
     * @link http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.php-sapi-name.php PHP_SAPI
     *
     * @return boolean    Returns true if PHP is running as CGI module or else false.
     *
     * @access public
     * @static
     */
    public static function isCgi()
    {
        if (substr(PHP_SAPI, 0, 3) == 'cgi') {
            return true;
        } else {
            return false;
        }
        return false;
    }
}
print "PHP is running ".((CliCheck::isCgi()) ? "as CGI modul " : ((!CliCheck::isCli()) ? "as DSO modul " : ""));
print ((CliCheck::isCli()) ? "from the CLI." : ".");
print "\n";
?>

volo (19-May-2011 05:35)

Remember that $argv and $argc are not superglobals like $_SERVER. They are not accessible everywhere. If you use them in a function or class, you need to use the typical "global $argv,$argc;" line in order to enable those variables.

Rizwan (20-Apr-2011 12:08)

A simple way to check if script is running from browser or cli.

<?php
if(defined('STDIN') )
  echo("Running from CLI");
else
  echo("Not Running from CLI");
?>

Anonymous (29-Jun-2010 03:41)

Using CLI (on WIN at least), some INI paths are relative to the current working directory.  For example, if your error_log = "php_errors.log", then php_errors.log will be created (or appended to if already exists) in whatever directory you happen to be in at the moment if you have write access there.  Instead of having random error logs all over the place because of this behavior, you may want to set error_log to a full path, perhaps to the php.exe directory.

ross at golder dot org (23-Dec-2009 06:57)

Note that parsing of the shebang line may not always work as expected...

#!/usr/bin/php -dmemory_limit=512M -dsafe_mode=Off
<?php

print "memory_limit=".ini_get("memory_limit")."\n";
print "safe_mode=".ini_get("safe_mode")."\n";

?>

gives...

$ ./test.php
PHP:  Invalid configuration directive
memory_limit=512M -dsafe_mode
safe_mode=

notreallyanaddress at somerandomaddr dot com (03-Dec-2009 01:34)

If you want to be interactive with the user and accept user input, all you need to do is read from stdin. 

<?php
echo "Are you sure you want to do this?  Type 'yes' to continue: ";
$handle = fopen ("php://stdin","r");
$line = fgets($handle);
if(trim($line) != 'yes'){
    echo "ABORTING!\n";
    exit;
}
echo "\n";
echo "Thank you, continuing...\n";
?>

kazink at gmail dot com (02-Dec-2009 11:58)

I had problems running php as CGI in thttpd. I have followed instructions posted by db at digitalmediacreation dot ch, but I was still getting "500 Internal Error" answer from the server. However, I had no problems running php as CLI using a simple wrapper file named index.cgi:

#!/usr/bin/php
<?php
  require_once 'index.php';
?>

but i needed to pass user data through GET and POST, and this method couldn't handle it. I have spent 2 hours figuring out how to run the CGI mode properly, until I finally gave up, and done it in "manual" way. I have just added some code to the wrapper that reads GET and POST data into the proper variables:

#!/usr/bin/php
<?php

  //parse the command line into the $_GET variable
  parse_str($_SERVER['QUERY_STRING'], $_GET);
 
  //parse the standard input into the $_POST variable
  if (($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] === 'POST')
   && ($_SERVER['CONTENT_LENGTH'] > 0))
  {
    parse_str(fread(STDIN, $_SERVER['CONTENT_LENGTH']), $_POST);
  }

  require_once 'index.php';
?>

It works well for me. It may be useful if someone else have similar problem.

ca at php dot spamtrak dot org (09-Oct-2009 12:06)

I append this to most of my PHP files, to allow command line unit testing of a class.  It ensures that the unit test is only run if the script is run directly, and won't be triggered by an include from another CLI script.

<?php
if (!empty($argc) && strstr($argv[0], basename(__FILE__))) {
   $test = new TestClass();
   $rv = $test->Test();
   die("Test returned $rv\n");
}
?>

dj dot rokx at gmail dot com (11-Sep-2009 09:34)

Use PHP as Scripting Language in Windows Vista and 7:

ASSOC .phs=PHPScript
FTPYE PHPScript=[path to]\php.exe -f "%1" -- %*

optional set PATHEXT=.phs;%PATHEXT%

now you can execute any php-script (ext: .phs) from the shell like a .vbs or .cmd.

"c:\testscript.phs arg1 arg2" or with the optional step "c:\testscript arg1 arg2"

i hope this helps somebody.

Wade (07-Sep-2009 06:46)

I've just found that the fact that the CLI does *not* change the current directory will make include() and require() calls with relative paths fail. This is because they are relative to the current directory, not to the current executing file, the documentation notwithstanding. In CGI mode, this is the same because it changes the current directory.

One solution is to call the CGI binary rather than the CLI one. A better solutions is to use dirname(__FILE__) in your path names.

fuzzy76 at fuzzy76 dot net (30-Aug-2009 05:30)

To detect if run from CLI:

if (defined('STDIN'))

or:

if (isset($argc))

patrick at pwfisher dot com (22-Aug-2009 07:59)

This command line option parser supports any combination of three types of options (switches, flags and arguments) and returns a simple array.

[pfisher ~]$ php test.php --foo --bar=baz
  ["foo"]   => true
  ["bar"]   => "baz"

[pfisher ~]$ php test.php -abc
  ["a"]     => true
  ["b"]     => true
  ["c"]     => true

[pfisher ~]$ php test.php arg1 arg2 arg3
  [0]       => "arg1"
  [1]       => "arg2"
  [2]       => "arg3"

<?php
function parseArgs($argv){
    array_shift($argv);
    $out = array();
    foreach ($argv as $arg){
        if (substr($arg,0,2) == '--'){
            $eqPos = strpos($arg,'=');
            if ($eqPos === false){
                $key = substr($arg,2);
                $out[$key] = isset($out[$key]) ? $out[$key] : true;
            } else {
                $key = substr($arg,2,$eqPos-2);
                $out[$key] = substr($arg,$eqPos+1);
            }
        } else if (substr($arg,0,1) == '-'){
            if (substr($arg,2,1) == '='){
                $key = substr($arg,1,1);
                $out[$key] = substr($arg,3);
            } else {
                $chars = str_split(substr($arg,1));
                foreach ($chars as $char){
                    $key = $char;
                    $out[$key] = isset($out[$key]) ? $out[$key] : true;
                }
            }
        } else {
            $out[] = $arg;
        }
    }
    return $out;
}
?>

Full version with comments here: http://pwfisher.com/nucleus/index.php?itemid=45

coffear at gmail dot com (07-Jun-2009 01:06)

In the notes it there is an example of running 1 line of PHP using:

php -r 'print_r(get_defined_constants());'

This might work on a UNIX machine but unfortunately on windows it produces the following error message:

Parse error: parse error in Command line code on line 1

Instead of using ' (single quotes) to encompass the PHP code use " (double quotes) instead. You can safely use ' within the code itself however such as:

php -r "echo 'hello';"

SEWilco (07-May-2009 05:23)

Notice that piping output to some programs will have unexpected behavior:
               php my_script.php | less

The 'less' program usually sets the terminal mode so pressing ENTER is not necessary.  When using php-cli, it is necessary to press ENTER, unless "!stty sane" is able to fix things for you.  The php command is doing something to the terminal mode despite no interactive shell being requested.

Willy T. Koch (24-Feb-2009 10:11)

I'm figuring out how to pipe an email to a php script with postfix. For the email user@example.com:

I created the following line in /etc/aliases:
user:        "|/www/file.php"

file.php is chmod 755

This works fine. But I wanted to test this without having to send an email every time. And this took some searching to figure out, yet it's oh-so simple:

To pipe the file email.txt to the script, write the following in the terminal window:

user@host: php file.php < testepost.txt

I was confused by the | in the aliases file, and didn't get what came after what, etc etc.

Regards,

Willy T. Koch
Norway

patrick smith (11-Nov-2008 03:43)

For command-line option definition and parsing, don't forget about the beauty of getopt().

There's a php-native version (http://php.net/getopt) and a PEAR package -- Console_GetOpt (http://pear.php.net/package/Console_Getopt).

Anonymous (26-Oct-2008 04:52)

Here's  my modification of "thomas dot harding at laposte dot net" script (below) to read arguments from $argv of the form --name=VALUE and -flag.

"Input":
./script.php -a arg1 --opt1 arg2 -bcde --opt2=val2 arg3 arg4 arg5 -fg --opt3

"print_r Output":
Array
(
    [exec] => ./script.php
    [options] => Array
        (
            [0] => opt1
            [1] => Array
                (
                    [0] => opt2
                    [1] => val2
                )
            [2] => opt3
        )
    [flags] => Array
        (
            [0] => a
            [1] => b
            [2] => c
            [3] => d
            [4] => e
            [5] => f
            [6] => g
        )
    [arguments] => Array
        (
            [0] => arg1
            [1] => arg2
            [2] => arg3
            [3] => arg4
            [4] => arg5
        )
)

<?php
function arguments($args ) {
    $ret = array(
        'exec'      => '',
        'options'   => array(),
        'flags'     => array(),
        'arguments' => array(),
    );

    $ret['exec'] = array_shift( $args );

    while (($arg = array_shift($args)) != NULL) {
        // Is it a option? (prefixed with --)
        if ( substr($arg, 0, 2) === '--' ) {
            $option = substr($arg, 2);

            // is it the syntax '--option=argument'?
            if (strpos($option,'=') !== FALSE)
                array_push( $ret['options'], explode('=', $option, 2) );
            else
                array_push( $ret['options'], $option );
           
            continue;
        }

        // Is it a flag or a serial of flags? (prefixed with -)
        if ( substr( $arg, 0, 1 ) === '-' ) {
            for ($i = 1; isset($arg[$i]) ; $i++)
                $ret['flags'][] = $arg[$i];

            continue;
        }

        // finally, it is not option, nor flag
        $ret['arguments'][] = $arg;
        continue;
    }
    return $ret;
}//function arguments
?>

tom at thomas dot harding dot net (04-Oct-2008 01:27)

To allow a "zero" option value:

replace:

$ret['options'][$com] = !empty($value) ? $value : true;

by:

$ret['options'][$com] = (strlen($value) > 0 ? $value : true);

In the sample below.

Thanks to Chris Chubb to point me out the problem

thomas dot harding at laposte dot net (14-Jun-2008 11:08)

Parsing command line: optimization is evil!

One thing all contributors on this page forgotten is that you can suround an argv with single or double quotes. So the join coupled together with the preg_match_all will always break that :)

Here is a proposal:

#!/usr/bin/php
<?php
print_r(arguments($argv));

function arguments ( $args )
{
  array_shift( $args );
  $endofoptions = false;

  $ret = array
    (
    'commands' => array(),
    'options' => array(),
    'flags'    => array(),
    'arguments' => array(),
    );

  while ( $arg = array_shift($args) )
  {

    // if we have reached end of options,
    //we cast all remaining argvs as arguments
    if ($endofoptions)
    {
      $ret['arguments'][] = $arg;
      continue;
    }

    // Is it a command? (prefixed with --)
    if ( substr( $arg, 0, 2 ) === '--' )
    {

      // is it the end of options flag?
      if (!isset ($arg[3]))
      {
        $endofoptions = true;; // end of options;
        continue;
      }

      $value = "";
      $com   = substr( $arg, 2 );

      // is it the syntax '--option=argument'?
      if (strpos($com,'='))
        list($com,$value) = split("=",$com,2);

      // is the option not followed by another option but by arguments
      elseif (strpos($args[0],'-') !== 0)
      {
        while (strpos($args[0],'-') !== 0)
          $value .= array_shift($args).' ';
        $value = rtrim($value,' ');
      }

      $ret['options'][$com] = !empty($value) ? $value : true;
      continue;

    }

    // Is it a flag or a serial of flags? (prefixed with -)
    if ( substr( $arg, 0, 1 ) === '-' )
    {
      for ($i = 1; isset($arg[$i]) ; $i++)
        $ret['flags'][] = $arg[$i];
      continue;
    }

    // finally, it is not option, nor flag, nor argument
    $ret['commands'][] = $arg;
    continue;
  }

  if (!count($ret['options']) && !count($ret['flags']))
  {
    $ret['arguments'] = array_merge($ret['commands'], $ret['arguments']);
    $ret['commands'] = array();
  }
return $ret;
}

exit (0)

/* vim: set expandtab tabstop=2 shiftwidth=2: */
?>

mortals at seznam dot cz (07-May-2008 09:08)

If a module SAPI is chosen during configure, such as apxs, or the --disable-cgi option is used, the CLI is copied to {PREFIX}/bin/php during make install  otherwise the CGI is placed there.

versus

Changed CGI install target to php-cgi and 'make install' to install CLI when CGI is selected. (changelog for 5.2.3)
http://www.php.net/ChangeLog-5.php#5.2.3

safak ozpinar (29-Feb-2008 02:32)

When you want to get inputs from STDIN, you may use this function if you like using C coding style.

<?php
// up to 8 variables

function scanf($format, &$a0=NULL, &$a1=NULL, &$a2=NULL, &$a3=NULL,
                        &$a4=NULL, &$a5=NULL, &$a6=NULL, &$a7=NULL)
{
    $num_args = func_num_args();
    if($num_args > 1) {
        $inputs = fscanf(STDIN, $format);
        for($i=0; $i<$num_args-1; $i++) {
            $arg = 'a'.$i;
            $$arg = $inputs[$i];
        }
    }
}

scanf("%d", $number);

?>

Anonymous (17-Feb-2008 05:29)

I find regex and manually breaking up the arguments instead of havingon $_SERVER['argv'] to do it more flexiable this way.

cli_test.php asdf asdf --help --dest=/var/ -asd -h --option mew arf moo -z

    Array
    (
        [input] => Array
            (
                [0] => asdf
                [1] => asdf
            )

        [commands] => Array
            (
                [help] => 1
                [dest] => /var/
                [option] => mew arf moo
            )

        [flags] => Array
            (
                [0] => asd
                [1] => h
                [2] => z
            )

    )

<?php

function arguments ( $args )
{
    array_shift( $args );
    $args = join( $args, ' ' );

    preg_match_all('/ (--\w+ (?:[= ] [^-]+ [^\s-] )? ) | (-\w+) | (\w+) /x', $args, $match );
    $args = array_shift( $match );

    /*
        Array
        (
            [0] => asdf
            [1] => asdf
            [2] => --help
            [3] => --dest=/var/
            [4] => -asd
            [5] => -h
            [6] => --option mew arf moo
            [7] => -z
        )
    */

    $ret = array(
        'input'    => array(),
        'commands' => array(),
        'flags'    => array()
    );

    foreach ( $args as $arg ) {

        // Is it a command? (prefixed with --)
        if ( substr( $arg, 0, 2 ) === '--' ) {

            $value = preg_split( '/[= ]/', $arg, 2 );
            $com   = substr( array_shift($value), 2 );
            $value = join($value);

            $ret['commands'][$com] = !empty($value) ? $value : true;
            continue;

        }

        // Is it a flag? (prefixed with -)
        if ( substr( $arg, 0, 1 ) === '-' ) {
            $ret['flags'][] = substr( $arg, 1 );
            continue;
        }

        $ret['input'][] = $arg;
        continue;

    }

    return $ret;
}

print_r( arguments( $argv ) );

?>

technorati at gmail dot com (12-Feb-2008 02:21)

Here's an update to the script a couple of people gave below to read arguments from $argv of the form --name=VALUE and -flag. Changes include:

Don't use $_ARG - $_ is generally considered reserved for the engine.
Don't use regex where a string operation will do just as nicely
Don't overwrite --name=VALUE with -flag when 'name' and 'flag' are the same thing
Allow for VALUE that has an equals sign in it

<?php
function arguments($argv) {
    $ARG = array();
    foreach ($argv as $arg) {
        if (strpos($arg, '--') === 0) {
            $compspec = explode('=', $arg);
            $key = str_replace('--', '', array_shift($compspec));
            $value = join('=', $compspec);
            $ARG[$key] = $value;
        } elseif (strpos($arg, '-') === 0) {
            $key = str_replace('-', '', $arg);
            if (!isset($ARG[$key])) $ARG[$key] = true;
        }
    }
    return $ARG;
}
?>

earomero _{at}_ gmail.com (28-Oct-2007 11:51)

Here's <losbrutos at free dot fr> function modified to support unix like param syntax like <B Crawford> mentions:

<?php
function arguments($argv) {
    $_ARG = array();
    foreach ($argv as $arg) {
        if (preg_match('#^-{1,2}([a-zA-Z0-9]*)=?(.*)$#', $arg, $matches)) {
            $key = $matches[1];
            switch ($matches[2]) {
                case '':
                case 'true':
                $arg = true;
                break;
                case 'false':
                $arg = false;
                break;
                default:
                $arg = $matches[2];
            }
           
            /* make unix like -afd == -a -f -d */           
            if(preg_match("/^-([a-zA-Z0-9]+)/", $matches[0], $match)) {
                $string = $match[1];
                for($i=0; strlen($string) > $i; $i++) {
                    $_ARG[$string[$i]] = true;
                }
            } else {
                $_ARG[$key] = $arg;   
            }           
        } else {
            $_ARG['input'][] = $arg;
        }       
    }
    return $_ARG;   
}
?>

Sample:

eromero@ditto ~/workspace/snipplets $ foxogg2mp3.php asdf asdf --help --dest=/var/ -asd -h
Array
(
    [input] => Array
        (
            [0] => /usr/local/bin/foxogg2mp3.php
            [1] => asdf
            [2] => asdf
        )

    [help] => 1
    [dest] => /var/
    [a] => 1
    [s] => 1
    [d] => 1
    [h] => 1
)

james_s2010 at NOSPAM dot hotmail dot com (22-Oct-2007 10:11)

I was looking for a way to interactively get a single character response from user. Using STDIN with fread, fgets and such will only work after pressing enter. So I came up with this instead:

#!/usr/bin/php -q
<?php
function inKey($vals) {
    $inKey = "";
    While(!in_array($inKey,$vals)) {
        $inKey = trim(`read -s -n1 valu;echo \$valu`);
    }
    return $inKey;
}
function echoAT($Row,$Col,$prompt="") {
    // Display prompt at specific screen coords
    echo "\033[".$Row.";".$Col."H".$prompt;
}
    // Display prompt at position 10,10
    echoAT(10,10,"Opt : ");

    // Define acceptable responses
    $options = array("1","2","3","4","X");

    // Get user response
    $key = inKey($options);

    // Display user response & exit
    echoAT(12,10,"Pressed : $key\n");
?>

Hope this helps someone.

B Crawford (22-Oct-2007 03:01)

I have not seen in this thread any code snippets that support the full *nix style argument parsing. Consider this:

<?php
print_r(getArgs($_SERVER['argv']));

function getArgs($args) {
 $out = array();
 $last_arg = null;
    for($i = 1, $il = sizeof($args); $i < $il; $i++) {
        if( (bool)preg_match("/^--(.+)/", $args[$i], $match) ) {
         $parts = explode("=", $match[1]);
         $key = preg_replace("/[^a-z0-9]+/", "", $parts[0]);
            if(isset($parts[1])) {
             $out[$key] = $parts[1];   
            }
            else {
             $out[$key] = true;   
            }
         $last_arg = $key;
        }
        else if( (bool)preg_match("/^-([a-zA-Z0-9]+)/", $args[$i], $match) ) {
            for( $j = 0, $jl = strlen($match[1]); $j < $jl; $j++ ) {
             $key = $match[1]{$j};
             $out[$key] = true;
            }
         $last_arg = $key;
        }
        else if($last_arg !== null) {
         $out[$last_arg] = $args[$i];
        }
    }
 return $out;
}

/*
php file.php --foo=bar -abc -AB 'hello world' --baz

produces:

Array
(
  [foo] => bar
  [a] => true
  [b] => true
  [c] => true
  [A] => true
  [B] => hello world
  [baz] => true
)

*/
?>

losbrutos at free dot fr (27-Sep-2007 01:54)

an another "another variant" :

<?php
function arguments($argv)
{
  $_ARG = array();
  foreach ($argv as $arg)
  {
    if (preg_match('#^-{1,2}([a-zA-Z0-9]*)=?(.*)$#', $arg, $matches))
    {
      $key = $matches[1];
      switch ($matches[2])
      {
        case '':
        case 'true':
          $arg = true;
          break;
        case 'false':
          $arg = false;
          break;
        default:
          $arg = $matches[2];
      }
      $_ARG[$key] = $arg;
    }
    else
    {
      $_ARG['input'][] = $arg;
    }
  }
  return $_ARG;
}
?>

$php myscript.php arg1 -arg2=val2 --arg3=arg3 -arg4 --arg5 -arg6=false

Array
(
    [input] => Array
        (
            [0] => myscript.php
            [1] => arg1
        )

    [arg2] => val2
    [arg3] => arg3
    [arg4] => true
    [arg5] => true
    [arg5] => false
)

dino (at) asttra (dot) com (dot) br (16-Aug-2007 08:24)

For those who was unable to clear the windows screen trying to run CLS command:

CLS is not an windows executable file! It is an option from command.com!

So, the rigth command is

   system("command /C cls");

lucas dot vasconcelos at gmail dot com (22-Jul-2007 07:04)

Just another variant of previous script that group arguments doesn't starts with '-' or '--'

<?php
function arguments($argv) {
    $_ARG = array();
    foreach ($argv as $arg) {
      if (ereg('--([^=]+)=(.*)',$arg,$reg)) {
        $_ARG[$reg[1]] = $reg[2];
      } elseif(ereg('^-([a-zA-Z0-9])',$arg,$reg)) {
            $_ARG[$reg[1]] = 'true';
      } else {
            $_ARG['input'][]=$arg;
      }
    }
  return $_ARG;
}

print_r(arguments($argv));
?>

$ php myscript.php --user=nobody /etc/apache2/*
Array
(
    [input] => Array
        (
            [0] => myscript.php
            [1] => /etc/apache2/apache2.conf
            [2] => /etc/apache2/conf.d
            [3] => /etc/apache2/envvars
            [4] => /etc/apache2/httpd.conf
            [5] => /etc/apache2/mods-available
            [6] => /etc/apache2/mods-enabled
            [7] => /etc/apache2/ports.conf
            [8] => /etc/apache2/sites-available
            [9] => /etc/apache2/sites-enabled
        )

    [user] => nobody
)

bluej100@gmail (25-Jun-2007 07:02)

In 5.1.2 (and others, I assume), the -f form silently drops the first argument after the script name from $_SERVER['argv']. I'd suggest avoiding it unless you need it for a special case.

eric dot brison at anakeen dot com (04-Jun-2007 01:16)

Just a variant of previous script to accept arguments with '=' also
<?php
function arguments($argv) {
    $_ARG = array();
    foreach ($argv as $arg) {
      if (ereg('--([^=]+)=(.*)',$arg,$reg)) {
        $_ARG[$reg[1]] = $reg[2];
      } elseif(ereg('-([a-zA-Z0-9])',$arg,$reg)) {
            $_ARG[$reg[1]] = 'true';
        }
  
    }
  return $_ARG;
}
?>
$ php myscript.php --user=nobody --password=secret -p --access="host=127.0.0.1 port=456"
Array
(
    [user] => nobody
    [password] => secret
    [p] => true
    [access] => host=127.0.0.1 port=456
)

contact at nlindblad dot org (12-May-2007 10:55)

While working with command line scripts it is tedious to handle the arguments in a numerated array.

The following code will:

If the argument is of the form –NAME=VALUE it will be represented in the array as an element with the key NAME and the value VALUE. I the argument is a flag of the form -NAME it will be represented as a boolean with the name NAME with a value of true in the associative array.

<?php

function arguments($argv) {
    $_ARG = array();
    foreach ($argv as $arg) {
        if (ereg('--[a-zA-Z0-9]*=.*',$arg)) {
            $str = split("=",$arg); $arg = '';
            $key = ereg_replace("--",'',$str[0]);
            for ( $i = 1; $i < count($str); $i++ ) {
                $arg .= $str[$i];
            }
                        $_ARG[$key] = $arg;
        } elseif(ereg('-[a-zA-Z0-9]',$arg)) {
            $arg = ereg_replace("-",'',$arg);
            $_ARG[$arg] = 'true';
        }
   
    }
return $_ARG;
}

?>

Example:

<?php print_r(arguments($argv)); ?>

# php5 myscript.php --user=nobody --password=secret -p

Array
(
    [user] => nobody
    [password] => secret
    [p] => true
)

Jouni (08-Apr-2007 11:27)

I had a problem with PHP 5.2.0 (cli) (winXP) that no output was printed when I tried to run any file. Using the -n switch solved the problem.

Apparently the interpreter can't always find php.ini, even though both exist in the same folder and the PATH variable is set correctly. No error messages were printed either.

rob (23-Mar-2007 07:48)

i use emacs in c-mode for editing.  in 4.3, starting a cli script like so:

#!/usr/bin/php -q /* -*- c -*- */
<?php

told emacs to drop into c-mode automatically when i loaded the file for editing.  the '-q' flag didn't actually do anything (in the older cgi versions, it suppressed html output when the script was run) but it caused the commented mode line to be ignored by php.

in 5.2, '-q' has apparently been deprecated.  replace it with '--' to achieve the 4.3 invocation-with-emacs-mode-line behavior:

#!/usr/bin/php -- /* -*- c -*- */
<?php

don't go back to your 4.3 system and replace '-q' with '--'; it seems to cause php to hang waiting on STDIN...

djcassis at gmail (09-Mar-2007 03:14)

To display colored text when it is actually supported :
<?php
echo "\033[31m".$myvar; // red foreground
echo "\033[41m".$myvar; // red background
?>

To reset these settings :
<?php
echo "\033[0m";
?>

More fun :
<?php
echo "\033[5;30m;\033[48mWARNING !"; // black blinking text over red background
?>

More info here : http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Bash-Prompt-HOWTO/x329.html

jgraef at users dot sf dot net (26-Nov-2006 04:46)

Hi,
This function clears the screen, like "clear screen"

<?php
  function clearscreen($out = TRUE) {
    $clearscreen = chr(27)."[H".chr(27)."[2J";
    if ($out) print $clearscreen;
    else return $clearscreen;
  }
?>

goalain eat gmail dont com (14-Nov-2006 08:57)

An addition to my previous post (you can replace it)

If your php script doesn't run with shebang (#!/usr/bin/php),
and it issues the beautifull and informative error message:
"Command not found."  just dos2unix yourscript.php
et voila.

If you still get the "Command not found."
Just try to run it as ./myscript.php , with the "./"
if it works - it means your current directory is not in the executable search path.

If your php script doesn't run with shebang (#/usr/bin/php),
and it issues the beautifull and informative message:
"Invalid null command." it's probably because the "!" is missing in the the shebang line (like what's above) or something else in that area.

\Alon

(16-Sep-2006 07:05)

It seems like 'max_execution_time' doesn't work on CLI.

<?php
php -d max_execution_time=20
        -r '$foo = ini_get("max_execution_time"); var_dump($foo);'
?>
will print string(2) "20", but if you'l run infinity while: while(true) for example, it wouldn't stop after 20 seconds.
Testes on Linux Gentoo, PHP 5.1.6.

hobby6_at_hotmail.com (15-Sep-2006 11:59)

On windows, you can simulate a cls by echoing out just \r.  This will keep the cursor on the same line and overwrite what was on the line.

for example:

<?php
    echo "Starting Iteration" . "\n\r";
    for ($i=0;$i<10000;$i++) {
        echo "\r" . $i;
    }
    echo "Ending Iteration" . "\n\r";
?>

stromdotcom at hotmail dot com (21-Feb-2006 06:27)

Spawning php-win.exe as a child process to handle scripting in Windows applications has a few quirks (all having to do with pipes between Windows apps and console apps).

To do this in C++:

// We will run php.exe as a child process after creating
// two pipes and attaching them to stdin and stdout
// of the child process
// Define sa struct such that child inherits our handles

SECURITY_ATTRIBUTES sa = { sizeof(SECURITY_ATTRIBUTES) };
sa.bInheritHandle = TRUE;
sa.lpSecurityDescriptor = NULL;

// Create the handles for our two pipes (two handles per pipe, one for each end)
// We will have one pipe for stdin, and one for stdout, each with a READ and WRITE end
HANDLE hStdoutRd, hStdoutWr, hStdinRd, hStdinWr;

// Now create the pipes, and make them inheritable
CreatePipe (&hStdoutRd, &hStdoutWr, &sa, 0))
SetHandleInformation(hStdoutRd, HANDLE_FLAG_INHERIT, 0);
CreatePipe (&hStdinRd, &hStdinWr, &sa, 0)
SetHandleInformation(hStdinWr, HANDLE_FLAG_INHERIT, 0);

// Now we have two pipes, we can create the process
// First, fill out the usage structs
STARTUPINFO si = { sizeof(STARTUPINFO) };
PROCESS_INFORMATION pi;
si.dwFlags = STARTF_USESTDHANDLES;
si.hStdOutput = hStdoutWr;
si.hStdInput  = hStdinRd;

// And finally, create the process
CreateProcess (NULL, "c:\\php\\php-win.exe", NULL, NULL, TRUE, NORMAL_PRIORITY_CLASS, NULL, NULL, &si, &pi);

// Close the handles we aren't using
CloseHandle(hStdoutWr);
CloseHandle(hStdinRd);

// Now that we have the process running, we can start pushing PHP at it
WriteFile(hStdinWr, "<?php echo 'test'; ?>", 9, &dwWritten, NULL);

// When we're done writing to stdin, we close that pipe
CloseHandle(hStdinWr);

// Reading from stdout is only slightly more complicated
int i;

std::string processed("");
char buf[128];

while ( (ReadFile(hStdoutRd, buf, 128, &dwRead, NULL) && (dwRead != 0)) ) {
    for (i = 0; i < dwRead; i++)
        processed += buf[i];
}   

// Done reading, so close this handle too
CloseHandle(hStdoutRd);

A full implementation (implemented as a C++ class) is available at http://www.stromcode.com

drewish at katherinehouse dot com (25-Sep-2005 08:08)

When you're writing one line php scripts remember that 'php://stdin' is your friend. Here's a simple program I use to format PHP code for inclusion on my blog:

UNIX:
  cat test.php | php -r "print htmlentities(file_get_contents('php://stdin'));"

DOS/Windows:
  type test.php | php -r "print htmlentities(file_get_contents('php://stdin'));"

OverFlow636 at gmail dot com (19-Sep-2005 08:27)

I needed this, you proly wont tho.
puts the exicution args into $_GET
<?php
if ($argv) {
    foreach ($argv as $k=>$v)
    {
        if ($k==0) continue;
        $it = explode("=",$argv[$i]);
        if (isset($it[1])) $_GET[$it[0]] = $it[1];
    }
}
?>

php at schabdach dot de (16-Sep-2005 05:06)

To pass more than 9 arguments to your php-script on Windows, you can use the 'shift'-command in a batch file. After using 'shift', %1 becomes %0, %2 becomes %1 and so on - so you can fetch argument 10 etc.

Here's an example - hopefully ready-to-use - batch file:

foo.bat:
---------
@echo off

:init_arg
set args=

:get_arg
shift
if "%0"=="" goto :finish_arg
set args=%args% %0
goto :get_arg
:finish_arg

set php=C:\path\to\php.exe
set ini=C:\path\to\php.ini
%php% -c %ini% foo.php %args%
---------

Usage on commandline:
foo -1 -2 -3 -4 -5 -6 -7 -8 -9 -foo -bar

A print_r($argv) will give you all of the passed arguments.

docey (14-Jul-2005 01:44)

dunno if this is on linux the same but on windows evertime
you send somthing to the console screen php is waiting for
the console to return. therefor if you send a lot of small
short amounts of text, the console is starting to be using
more cpu-cycles then php and thus slowing the script.

take a look at this sheme:
cpu-cycle:1 ->php: print("a");
cpu-cycle:2 ->cmd: output("a");
cpu-cycle:3 ->php: print("b");
cpu-cycle:4 ->cmd: output("b");
cpu-cycle:5 ->php: print("c");
cpu-cycle:6 ->cmd: output("c");
cpu-cylce:7 ->php: print("d");
cpu-cycle:8 ->cmd: output("d");
cpu-cylce:9 ->php: print("e");
cpu-cycle:0 ->cmd: output("e");

on the screen just appears "abcde". but if you write
your script this way it will be far more faster:
cpu-cycle:1 ->php: ob_start();
cpu-cycle:2 ->php: print("abc");
cpu-cycle:3 ->php: print("de");
cpu-cycle:4 ->php: $data = ob_get_contents();
cpu-cycle:5 ->php: ob_end_clean();
cpu-cycle:6 ->php: print($data);
cpu-cycle:7 ->cmd: output("abcde");

now this is just a small example but if you are writing an
app that is outputting a lot to the console, i.e. a text
based screen with frequent updates, then its much better
to first cach all output, and output is as one big chunk of
text instead of one char a the time.

ouput buffering is ideal for this. in my script i outputted
almost 4000chars of info and just by caching it first, it
speeded up by almost 400% and dropped cpu-usage.

because what is being displayed doesn't matter, be it 2
chars or 40.0000 chars, just the call to output takes a
great deal of time. remeber that.

maybe someone can test if this is the same on unix-based
systems. it seems that the STDOUT stream just waits for
the console to report ready, before continueing execution.

wallacebw (24-Jun-2005 04:07)

For windows clearing the screen using "system('cls');" does not work (at least for me)...

Although this is not pretty it works... Simply send 24 newlines after the output (for one line of output, 23 for two, etc

Here is a sample function and usage:

<?php
function CLS($lines){  // $lines = number of lines of output to keep
    for($i=24;$i>=$lines;$i--) @$return.="\n";
    return $return;
}
 
fwrite(STDOUT,"Still Processing: Total Time ".$i." Minutes so far..." . CLS(1));
?>

Hope This Helps,
Wallacebw

linus at flowingcreativity dot net (30-May-2005 03:32)

If you are using Windows XP (I think this works on 2000, too) and you want to be able to right-click a .php file and run it from the command line, follow these steps:

1. Run regedit.exe and *back up the registry.*
2. Open HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT and find the ".php" key.

IF IT EXISTS:
------------------
3. Look at the "(Default)" value inside it and find the key in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT with that name.
4. Open the "shell" key inside that key. Skip to 8.

IF IT DOESN'T:
------------------
5. Add a ".php" key and set the "(Default)" value inside it to something like "phpscriptfile".
6. Create another key in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT called "phpscriptfile" or whatever you chose.
7. Create a key inside that one called "shell".

8. Create a key inside that one called "run".
9. Set the "(Default)" value inside "run" to whatever you want the menu option to be (e.g. "Run").
10. Create a key inside "run" called "command".
11. Set the "(Default)" value inside "command" to:

cmd.exe /k C:\php\php.exe "%1"

Make sure the path to PHP is appropriate for your installation. Why not just run it with php.exe directly? Because you (presumably) want the console window to remain open after the script ends.

You don't need to set up a webserver for this to work. I downloaded PHP just so I could run scripts on my computer. Hope this is useful!

roberto dot dimas at gmail dot com (26-May-2005 09:52)

One of the things I like about perl and vbscripts, is the fact that I can name a file e.g. 'test.pl' and just have to type 'test, without the .pl extension' on the windows command line and the command processor knows that it is a perl file and executes it using the perl command interpreter.

I did the same with the file extension .php3 (I will use php3 exclusivelly for command line php scripts, I'm doing this because my text editor VIM 6.3 already has the correct syntax highlighting for .php3 files ).

I modified the PATHEXT environment variable in Windows XP, from the " 'system' control panel applet->'Advanced' tab->'Environment Variables' button-> 'System variables' text area".

Then from control panel "Folder Options" applet-> 'File Types' tab, I added a new file extention (php3), using the button 'New'  and typing php3 in the window that pops up.

Then in the 'Details for php3 extention' area I used the 'Change' button to look for the Php.exe executable so that the php3 file extentions are associated with the php executable.

You have to modify also the 'PATH' environment variable, pointing to the folder where the php executable is installed

Hope this is useful to somebody

diego dot rodrigues at poli dot usp dot br (03-May-2005 04:29)

#!/usr/bin/php -q
<?php
/**********************************************
* Simple argv[] parser for CLI scripts
* Diego Mendes Rodrigues - S?o Paulo - Brazil
* diego.m.rodrigues [at] gmail [dot] com
* May/2005
**********************************************/

class arg_parser {
    var $argc;
    var $argv;
    var $parsed;
    var $force_this;

    function arg_parser($force_this="") {
        global $argc, $argv;
        $this->argc = $argc;
        $this->argv = $argv;
        $this->parsed = array();
       
        array_push($this->parsed,
                           array($this->argv[0]) );

        if ( !empty($force_this) )
            if ( is_array($force_this) )
                $this->force_this = $force_this;

        //Sending parameters to $parsed
        if ( $this->argc > 1 ) {
            for($i=1 ; $i< $this->argc ; $i++) {
                //We only have passed -xxxx
                if ( substr($this->argv[$i],0,1) == "-" ) {
                    //Se temos -xxxx xxxx
                    if ( $this->argc > ($i+1) ) {
                        if ( substr($this->argv[$i+1],0,1) != "-" ) {
                            array_push($this->parsed,
                                array($this->argv[$i],
                                    $this->argv[$i+1]) );
                            $i++;
                            continue;
                        }
                    }
                }
                //We have passed -xxxxx1 xxxxx2
                array_push($this->parsed,
                                                  array($this->argv[$i]) );
            }
        }

                //Testing if all necessary parameters have been passed
                $this->force();
    }

    //Testing if one parameter have benn passed
    function passed($argumento) {
        for($i=0 ; $i< $this->argc ; $i++)
            if ( $this->parsed[$i][0] == $argumento )
                return $i;
        return 0;
    }

    //Testing if you have passed a estra argument, -xxxx1 xxxxx2
    function full_passed($argumento) {
        $findArg = $this->passed($argumento);
        if ( $findArg )
            if ( count($this->parsed[$findArg] ) > 1 )
                return $findArg;
        return 0;
    }

        //Returns  xxxxx2 at a " -xxxx1 xxxxx2" call
    function get_full_passed($argumento) {
                $findArg = $this->full_passed($argumento);

                if ( $findArg )
                    return $this->parsed[$findArg][1];

                return;
        }
   
    //Necessary parameters to script
    function force() {
        if ( is_array( $this->force_this ) ) {
            for($i=0 ; $i< count($this->force_this) ; $i++) {
                if ( $this->force_this[$i][1] == "SIMPLE"
                     && !$this->passed($this->force_this[$i][0])
                )
                    die("\n\nMissing " . $this->force_this[$i][0] . "\n\n");

                                if ( $this->force_this[$i][1] == "FULL"
                                     && !$this->full_passed($this->force_this[$i][0])
                )
                                        die("\n\nMissing " . $this->force_this[$i][0] ." <arg>\n\n");
            }
        }
    }
}

//Example
$forcar = array(
        array("-name", "FULL"),
        array("-email","SIMPLE") );

$parser = new arg_parser($forcar);

if ( $parser->passed("-show") )
    echo "\nGoing...:";

echo "\nName: " . $parser->get_full_passed("-name");

if ( $parser->full_passed("-email") ) 
    echo "\nEmail: " . $parser->get_full_passed("-email");
else
        echo "\nEmail: default";

if ( $parser->full_passed("-copy") )
        echo "\nCopy To: " . $parser->get_full_passed("-copy");

echo "\n\n";
?>

TESTING
=====
[diego@Homer diego]$ ./en_arg_parser.php -name -email cool -copy Ana

Missing -name <arg>

[diego@Homer diego]$ ./en_arg_parser.php -name diego -email cool -copy Ana

Name: diego
Email: cool
Copy To: Ana

[diego@Homer diego]$ ./en_arg_parser.php -name diego -email  -copy Ana

Name: diego
Email: default
Copy To: Ana

[diego@Homer diego]$ ./en_arg_parser.php -name diego -email

Name: diego
Email: default

[diego@Homer diego]$

rh@hdesigndotdemondotcodotuk (25-Apr-2005 09:28)

In a bid to save time out of lives when calling up php from the Command Line on Mac OS X.

I just wasted hours on this. Having written a routine which used the MCRYPT library, and tested it via a browser, I then set up a crontab to run the script from the command line every hour (to do automated backups from mysql using mysqldump, encrypt them using mcrypt, then email them and ftp them off to remote locations).

Everything worked fine from the browser, but failed every time from the cron task with "Call to undefined function: mcrypt [whatever]".

Only after much searching do I realise that the CGI and CLI versions are differently compiled, and have different modules attached (I'm using the entropy.ch install for Mac OS-X, php v4.3.2 and mysql v4.0.18).

I still can not find a way to resolve the problem, so I have decided instead to remove the script from the SSL side of the server, and run it using a crontab with CURL to localhost or 127.0.0.1 in order that it will run through Apache's php module.

Just thought this might help some other people tearing their hair out. If anyone knows a quick fix to add the mcrypt module onto the CLI php without any tricky re-installing, it'd be really helpful.

Meantime the workaround does the job, not as neatly though.

merrittd at dhcmc dot com (28-Mar-2005 09:23)

Example 43-2 shows how to create a DOS batch file to run a PHP script form the command line using:

@c:\php\cli\php.exe script.php %1 %2 %3 %4

Here is an updated version of the DOS batch file:

@c:\php\cli\php.exe %~n0.php %*

This will run a PHP file (i.e. script.php) with the same base file name (i.e. script) as the DOS batch file (i.e. script.bat) and pass all parameters (not just the first four as in example 43-2) from the DOS batch file to the PHP file. 

This way all you have to do is copy/rename the DOS batch file to match the name of your PHP script file without ever having to actually modify the contents of the DOS batch file to match the file name of the PHP script.

bertrand at toggg dot com (07-Mar-2005 04:40)

If you want to pass directly PHP code to the interpreter and you don't have only CGI, not the CLI SAPI so you miss the -r option.
If you're lucky enough to be on a nix like system, then tou can still use the pipe solution as the 3. way to command CLI SAPI described above, using a pipe ('|').

Then works for CGI SAPI:

$ echo '<?php echo "coucou\n"; phpinfo(); /* or any code */ ?>' | php

NOTE: unlike commands passed to the -r option, here you NEED the PHP tags.

obfuscated at emailaddress dot com (25-Feb-2005 04:15)

This posting is not a php-only problem, but hopefully will save someone a few hours of headaches.  Running on MacOS (although this could happen on any *nix I suppose), I was unable to get the script to execute without specifically envoking php from the command line:

[macg4:valencia/jobs] tim% test.php
./test.php: Command not found.

However, it worked just fine when php was envoked on the command line:

[macg4:valencia/jobs] tim% php test.php
Well, here we are...  Now what?

Was file access mode set for executable?  Yup.

[macg4:valencia/jobs] tim% ls -l
total 16
-rwxr-xr-x  1 tim  staff   242 Feb 24 17:23 test.php

And you did, of course, remember to add the php command as the first line of your script, yeah?  Of course.

#!/usr/bin/php
<?php print "Well, here we are...  Now what?\n"; ?>

So why dudn't it work?  Well, like I said... on a Mac.... but I also occasionally edit the files on my Windows portable (i.e. when I'm travelling and don't have my trusty Mac available)...  Using, say, WordPad on Windows... and BBEdit on the Mac...

Aaahhh... in BBEdit check how the file is being saved!  Mac?  Unix?  or Dos?  Bingo.  It had been saved as Dos format.  Change it to Unix:

[macg4:valencia/jobs] tim% ./test.php
Well, here we are...  Now what?
[macg4:valencia/jobs] tim%

NB: If you're editing your php files on multiple platforms (i.e. Windows and Linux), make sure you double check the files are saved in a Unix format...  those \r's and \n's 'll bite cha!

db at digitalmediacreation dot ch (22-Feb-2005 07:49)

A very important point missing here (I lost hours on it and hope to avoid this to you) :

* When using PHP as CGI
* When you just become crazy because of "No input file specified" appearing on the web page, while it never appears directly in the shell

Then I have a solution for you :

1. Create a script for example called cgiwrapper.cgi
2. Put inside :
 #!/bin/sh -
 export SCRIPT_FILENAME=/var/www/realpage.php
 /usr/bin/php -f $SCRIPT_FILENAME
3. Name your page realpage.php

For example with thttpd the problem is that SCRIPT_FILENAME is not defined, while PHP absolutely requires it.
My solution corrects that problem !

ken.gregg at rwre dot com (09-Jan-2005 09:38)

If you want to use named command line parameters in your script,
the following code will parse command line parameters in the form
of name=value and place them in the $_REQUEST super global array.

cli_test.php
<?php

echo "argv[] = ";
print_r($argv);  // just to see what was passed in

if ($argc > 0)
{
  for ($i=1;$i < $argc;$i++)
  {
    parse_str($argv[$i],$tmp);
    $_REQUEST = array_merge($_REQUEST, $tmp);
  }
}

echo "\$_REQUEST = ";
print_r($_REQUEST);

?>

rwre:~/tmp$ /usr/local/bin/php cli_test.php foo=1 bar=2 third=a+value

argv[] = Array
(
    [0] => t.php
    [1] => foo=1
    [2] => bar=2
    [3] => third=a+value
)
$_REQUEST = Array
(
    [foo] => 1
    [bar] => 2
    [third] => a value
)

Ben Jenkins (22-Dec-2004 05:23)

This took me all day to figure out, so I hope posting it here saves someone some time:
Your PHP-CLI may have a different php.ini than your apache-php.  For example: On my Debian-based system, I discovered I have /etc/php4/apache/php.ini and /etc/php4/cli/php.ini
If you want MySQL support in the CLI, make sure the line
extension=mysql.so
is not commented out.
The differences in php.ini files may also be why some scripts will work when called through a web browser, but will not work when called via the command line.

linn at backendmedia dot com (06-Feb-2004 02:12)

For those of you who want the old CGI behaviour that changes to the actual directory of the script use:
chdir(dirname($_SERVER['argv'][0]));

at the beginning of your scripts.

ben at slax0rnet dot com (03-Feb-2004 03:34)

Just a note for people trying to use interactive mode from the commandline.

The purpose of interactive mode is to parse code snippits without actually leaving php, and it works like this:

[root@localhost php-4.3.4]# php -a
Interactive mode enabled

<?php echo "hi!"; ?>
<note, here we would press CTRL-D to parse everything we've entered so far>
hi!
<?php exit(); ?>
<ctrl-d here again>
[root@localhost php-4.3.4]#

I noticed this somehow got ommited from the docs, hope it helps someone!

phprsr at mindtwin dot com (06-Aug-2003 05:12)

The basic issue was that PHP-as-CGI REALLY REALLY wants SCRIPT_FILENAME.
It ignores the command line. It ignores SCRIPT_NAME.  It wants
SCRIPT_FILENAME.

"No input file specified."

This very informative error message from PHP means that your web server, WHATEVER it is, is not setting SCRIPT_FILENAME.

The minimum set of env variables:

PATH: DOESN'T MATTER if you're spawning php pages with #!/../php in them
LD_LIBRARY_PATH= should be right
SERVER_SOFTWARE=mini_httpd/1.17beta1 26may2002
SERVER_NAME=who cares
GATEWAY_INTERFACE=CGI/1.1
SERVER_PROTOCOL=HTTP/1.0
SERVER_PORT=whatever
REQUEST_METHOD=GET
SCRIPT_NAME=/foo.php
SCRIPT_FILENAME=/homes/foobie/mini/foo.php    <--- CRITICAL
QUERY_STRING==PHPE9568F35-D428-11d2-A769-00AA001ACF42
REMOTE_ADDR=172.17.12.80
HTTP_REFERER=http://booky16:10000/foo.php
HTTP_USER_AGENT=Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.0; Q312461; .NET CLR 1.0.3705; .NET CLR 1.1.4322)

If SCRIPT_FILENAME is not set, you'll get the dreaded "No input file specified" message.

mini_httpd does not do this by default. You need to patch it in to make_envp.

A secondary issue is configuration (PHP):

    ./configure --enable-discard-path --with-config-file-path=/homes/wherever/mini/php.ini
   
    (where php.ini is a slightly modified version of php.ini-recommended)

punk at studionew dot com (19-Jul-2003 12:18)

You can use this function to ask user to enter something.

<?php
function read ($length='255')
{
   if (!isset ($GLOBALS['StdinPointer']))
   {
      $GLOBALS['StdinPointer'] = fopen ("php://stdin","r");
   }
   $line = fgets ($GLOBALS['StdinPointer'],$length);
   return trim ($line);
}

// then

echo "Enter your name: ";
$name = read ();
echo "\nHello $name! Where you came from? ";
$where = read ();
echo "\nI see. $where is very good place.";
?>

Adam, php(at)getwebspace.com (17-Jun-2003 12:12)

Ok, I've had a heck of a time with PHP > 4.3.x and whether to use CLI vs CGI. The CGI version of 4.3.2 would return (in browser):
---
No input file specified.
---

And the CLI version would return:
---
500 Internal Server Error
---

It appears that in CGI mode, PHP looks at the environment variable PATH_TRANSLATED to determine the script to execute and ignores command line. That is why in the absensce of this environment variable, you get "No input file specified." However, in CLI mode the HTTP headers are not printed. I believe this is intended behavior for both situations but creates a problem when you have a CGI wrapper that sends environment variables but passes the actual script name on the command line.

By modifying my CGI wrapper to create this PATH_TRANSLATED environment variable, it solved my problem, and I was able to run the CGI build of 4.3.2

monte at ispi dot net (04-Jun-2003 11:47)

I had a problem with the $argv values getting split up when they contained plus (+) signs. Be sure to use the CLI version, not CGI to get around it.

Monte

Popeye at P-t-B dot com (18-Apr-2003 04:15)

In *nix systems, use the WHICH command to show the location of the php binary executable. This is the path to use as the first line in your php shell script file. (#!/path/to/php -q) And execute php from the command line with the -v switch to see what version you are running.

example:

# which php
/usr/local/bin/php
# php -v
PHP 4.3.1 (cli) (built: Mar 27 2003 14:41:51)
Copyright (c) 1997-2002 The PHP Group
Zend Engine v1.3.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2002 Zend Technologies

In the above example, you would use: #!/usr/local/bin/php

Also note that, if you do not have the current/default directory in your PATH (.), you will have to use ./scriptfilename to execute your script file from the command line (or you will receive a "command not found" error). Use the ENV command to show your PATH environment variable value.

volkany at celiknet dot com (20-Feb-2003 09:44)

Here goes a very simple clrscr function for newbies...
function clrscr() { system("clear"); }

Alexander Plakidin (14-Feb-2003 01:34)

How to change current directory in PHP script to script's directory when running it from command line using PHP 4.3.0?
(you'll probably need to add this to older scripts when running them under PHP 4.3.0 for backwards compatibility)

Here's what I am using:
chdir(preg_replace('/\\/[^\\/]+$/',"",$PHP_SELF));

Note: documentation says that "PHP_SELF" is not available in command-line PHP scripts. Though, it IS available. Probably this will be changed in future version, so don't rely on this line of code...

Use $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'] instead of just $PHP_SELF if you have register_globals=Off

c dot kelly[no--spam] at qfsaustrlia dot com dot au (07-Feb-2003 04:03)

In Windows [NT4.0 sp6a] the example
php -r ' echo getcwd();' does not work ; It appears you have to use the following php -r "echo getcwd();" --not the " around the command   to get the output to screen , just took me half an hour to figure out what was going on.

wanna at stay dot anonynous dot com (22-Jan-2003 05:42)

TIP: If you want different versions of the configuration file  depending on what SAPI is used,just name them php.ini (apache module), php-cli.ini (CLI) and php-cgi.ini (CGI) and dump them all in the regular configuration directory. I.e no need to compile several versions of php anymore!

phpnotes at ssilk dot de (22-Oct-2002 11:36)

To hand over the GET-variables in interactive mode like in HTTP-Mode (e.g. your URI is myprog.html?hugo=bla&bla=hugo), you have to call

php myprog.html '&hugo=bla&bla=hugo'

(two & instead of ? and &!)

There just a little difference in the $ARGC, $ARGV values, but I think this is in those cases not relevant.

justin at visunet dot ie (21-Oct-2002 05:21)

If you are trying to set up an interactive command line script and you want to get started straight away (works on 4+ I hope). Here is some code to start you off:

<?php

    // Stop the script giving time out errors..
    set_time_limit(0);

    // This opens standard in ready for interactive input..
    define('STDIN',fopen("php://stdin","r"));

    // Main event loop to capture top level command..
    while(!0)
    {
       
        // Print out main menu..
        echo "Select an option..\n\n";
        echo "    1) Do this\n";
        echo "    2) Do this\n";
        echo "    3) Do this\n";
        echo "    x) Exit\n";

        // Decide what menu option to select based on input..
        switch(trim(fgets(STDIN,256)))
        {
            case 1:
                break;
               
            case 2:
                break;

            case 3:
                break;

            case "x":
                exit();
               
            default:
                break;
        }

    }

    // Close standard in..
    fclose(STDIN);

?>

phpNOSPAM at dogpoop dot cjb dot net (12-Oct-2002 04:28)

Here are some instructions on how to make PHP files executable from the command prompt in Win2k.  I have not tested this in any other version of Windows, but I'm assuming it will work in XP, but not 9x/Me.

There is an environment variable (control panel->system->advanced->environment variables) named PATHEXT.  This is a list of file extensions Windows will recognize as executable at the command prompt.  Add .PHP (or .PL, or .CLASS, or whatever) to this list.  Windows will use the default action associated with that file type when you execute it from the command prompt.

To set up the default action:
Open Explorer.
Go to Tools->folder options->file types
Find the extension you're looking for.  If it's not there, click New to add it.
Click on the file type, then on Advanced, then New.
For the action, type "Run" or "Execute" or whatever makes sense.
For the application, type
  {path to application} "%1" %*
The %* will send any command line options that you type to the program.
The application field for PHP might look like
  c:\php\php.exe -f "%1" -- %*
(Note, you'll probably want to use the command line interface version php-cli.exe)
or for Java
  c:\java\java.exe "%1" %*
Click OK.
Click on the action that was just added, then click Set default.

If this helps you or if you have any changes/more information I would appreciate a note.  Just remove NOSPAM from the email address.

jeff at noSpam[] dot genhex dot net (06-Sep-2002 01:13)

You can also call the script from the command line after chmod'ing the file (ie: chmod 755 file.php).

On your first line of the file, enter "#!/usr/bin/php" (or to wherever your php executable is located).  If you want to suppress the PHP headers, use the line of "#!/usr/bin/php -q" for your path.

zager[..A..T..]teleaction.de (15-Aug-2002 07:15)

Under Solaris (at least 2.6) I have some problems with reading stdin. Original pbms report may be found here:
http://groups.google.com/groups?
q=Re:+%5BPHP%5D+Q+on+php://stdin+--+an+answer!&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-
8&oe=UTF-8&selm=3C74AF57.6090704%40Sun.COM&rnum=1

At a first glance the only solution for it is 'fgetcsv'

#!/usr/local/bin/php -q
<?php

set_magic_quotes_runtime(0);
$fd=fopen("php://stdin","r");
if (!$fd)
  exit;

while (!feof ($fd))
{
  $s = fgetcsv($fd,128,"\n");
  if ($s==false)
    continue;

  echo $s[0]."\n";
}
?> 

But... keep reading....

>>> I wrote
Hello,
Sometimes I hate PHP... ;)

Right today I was trapped by some strange bug in my code with reading stdin using fgetcsv.
After a not small investigation I found that strings like "foo\nboo\ndoo"goo\n (take note of double quatation sign in it)
interpreted by fgetcsv like:
1->foo\nboo\ndoo
2->goo
since double quotation mark has a special meaning and get stripped off of the input stream.
Indeed, according to PHP manual:
[quote]
array fgetcsv ( int fp, int length [, string delimiter [, string enclosure]])

[skip]
another delimiter with the optional third parameter. _The_enclosure_character_is_double_quote_,_unless_
it_is_specified_.
[skip]
_enclosure_is_added_from_PHP 4.3.0.       !!!!!!
[/quote]

Means no chance for us prior to 4.3.0 :(
But file() works just fine !!!! Of course by the price of memory, so be careful with large files.

set_magic_quotes_runtime(0); // important, do not forget it !!!
$s=file("php://stdin");
for ($i=0,$n=sizeof($s);$i<$n;$i++)
{
  do_something_useful(rtrim($s[$i]));
}

Conclusion:
1. If you have no double quotation mark in your data use fgetcsv
2. From 4.3.0 use   fgetcsv($fd,"\n",""); // I hope it will help
3. If you data is not huge use file("php://stdin");

Hope now it's cleared for 100% (to myself ;)

Good luck!
Dim

PS. Don't forget that it's only Solaris specific problem. Under Linux just use usual fgets()...

jonNO at SPAMjellybob dot co dot uk (04-Aug-2002 05:17)

If you want to get the output of a command use the function shell_exec($command) - it returns a string with the output of the command.

ben-php dot net at wefros dot com (13-Jun-2002 11:40)

PHP 4.3 and above automatically have STDOUT, STDIN, and STDERR openned ... but < 4.3.0 do not.  This is how you make code that will work in versions previous to PHP 4.3 and future versions without any changes:

<?php
    if (version_compare(phpversion(),'4.3.0','<')) {
        define('STDIN',fopen("php://stdin","r"));
        define('STDOUT',fopen("php://stout","r"));
        define('STDERR',fopen("php://sterr","r"));
        register_shutdown_function( create_function( '' , 'fclose(STDIN); fclose(STDOUT); fclose(STDERR); return true;' ) );
    }

/* get some STDIN up to 256 bytes */
    $str = fgets(STDIN,256);
?>

pyxl at jerrell dot com (18-Feb-2002 07:52)

Assuming --prefix=/usr/local/php, it's better to create a symlink from /usr/bin/php or /usr/local/bin/php to target /usr/local/php/bin/php so that it's both in your path and automatically correct every time you rebuild.  If you forgot to do that copy of the binary after a rebuild, you can do all kinds of wild goose chasing when things break.