Using PHP from the command line

User Contributed Notes 35 notes

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103

11 years ago

You can easily parse command line arguments into the $_GET variable by using the parse_str() function.

<?php

parse_str(implode('&', array_slice($argv, 1)), $_GET);

?>

It behaves exactly like you'd expect with cgi-php.

$ php -f somefile.php a=1 b[]=2 b[]=3

This will set $_GET['a'] to '1' and $_GET['b'] to array('2', '3').

Even better, instead of putting that line in every file, take advantage of PHP's auto_prepend_file directive.  Put that line in its own file and set the auto_prepend_file directive in your cli-specific php.ini like so:

auto_prepend_file = "/etc/php/cli-php5.3/local.prepend.php"

It will be automatically prepended to any PHP file run from the command line.

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Anonymous ¶

2 years ago

We can pass many arguments directly into the hashbang line.
As example many ini setting via the -d parameter of php.
---
#!/usr/bin/php -d memory_limit=2048M -d post_max_size=0
phpinfo();
exit;
---
./script | grep memory
memory_limit => 2048M => 2048M
---
But we can also use this behaviour into a second script, so it call the first as an interpreter, via the hashbang:
---
#!./script arg1 arg2 arg3 
---
However the parameters are dispatched in a different way into $argv

All the parameters are in $argv[1], $argv[0] is the interpreter script name, and $argv[1] is the caller script name.

To get back the parameters into $argv, we can simply test if $argv[1] contains spaces, and then dispatch again as normal: 

#!/usr/bin/php -d memory_limit=2048M -d post_max_size=0
<?php
var_dump($argv);
if (strpos($argv[1], ' ') !== false){
  $argw = explode(" ", $argv[1]);
  array_unshift($argw, $argv[2]);
  $argv = $argw;
}
var_dump($argv); ?>
---
array(3) {
  [0]=>
  string(8) "./script"
  [1]=>
  string(15) "arg1 arg2 arg3 "
  [2]=>
  string(14) "./other_script"
}
array(4) {
  [0]=>
  string(8) "./other_script"
  [1]=>
  string(4) "arg1"
  [2]=>
  string(4) "arg2"
  [3]=>
  string(4) "arg3"
}
---
This will maintain the same behaviour in all cases and allow to even double click a script to call both parameters of another script, and even make a full interpreter language layer.  The other script doesn't has to be php. Take care of paths.

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frankNospamwanted at. toppoint dot. de ¶

9 years ago

Parsing commandline argument GET String without changing the PHP script (linux shell):
URL: index.php?a=1&b=2
Result: output.html

echo "" | php -R 'include("index.php");' -B 'parse_str($argv[1], $_GET);' 'a=1&b=2' >output.html

(no need to change php.ini)

You can put this 
  echo "" | php -R 'include("'$1'");' -B 'parse_str($argv[1], $_GET);' "$2"
in a bash script "php_get" to use it like this:
  php_get index.php 'a=1&b=2' >output.html
or directed to text browser...
  php_get index.php 'a=1&b=2' |w3m -T text/html

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apmuthu at usa dot net ¶

6 years ago

Adding a pause() function to PHP waiting for any user input returning it:

<?php
function pause() {
    $handle = fopen ("php://stdin","r");
    do { $line = fgets($handle); } while ($line == '');
    fclose($handle);
    return $line;
}
?>

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ohcc at 163 dot com ¶

7 years ago

use " instead of ' on windows when using the cli version with -r

php -r "echo 1" 
-- correct

php -r 'echo 1'
  PHP Parse error:  syntax error, unexpected ''echo' (T_ENCAPSED_AND_WHITESPACE), expecting end of file in Command line code on line 1

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monte at ispi dot net ¶

20 years ago

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

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drewish at katherinehouse dot com ¶

18 years ago

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'));"

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notreallyanaddress at somerandomaddr dot com ¶

14 years ago

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";
?>

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ben at slax0rnet dot com ¶

19 years ago

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!

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lucas dot vasconcelos at gmail dot com ¶

16 years ago

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

)

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PSIKYO at mail dot dlut dot edu dot cn ¶

10 years ago

If you edit a php file in windows, upload and run it on linux with command line method. You may encounter a running problem probably like that:

[root@ItsCloud02 wsdl]# ./lnxcli.php
Extension './lnxcli.php' not present.

Or you may encounter some other strange problem.
Care the enter key. In windows environment, enter key generate two binary characters '0D0A'. But in Linux, enter key generate just only a 'OA'.
I wish it can help someone if you are using windows to code php and run it as a command line program on linux.

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OverFlow636 at gmail dot com ¶

18 years ago

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];

    }

}

?>

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Kodeart ¶

12 years ago

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');

?>

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sam marshall ¶

4 years ago

When using the -R flag, the name of the variable containing the content of the current line (not including the LF) is $argn.

For example you can do this code:

cat file.txt | php -R 'echo $argn . "\n";'

This will just output each line of the input file without doing anything to it.

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thomas dot harding at laposte dot net ¶

15 years ago

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: */
?>

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jeff at noSpam[] dot genhex dot net ¶

21 years ago

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.

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roberto dot dimas at gmail dot com ¶

18 years ago

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

Using PHP from the command line

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User Contributed Notes 35 notes