<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
<!-- $Revision: 1.36 $ -->
<chapter id="features.commandline">
<title>Using PHP from the command line</title>
<!-- NEW DOCUMENTATION STARTS -->
<para>
As of version 4.3.0, PHP supports a new
<literal>SAPI</literal> type (Server Application Programming Interface)
named <literal>CLI</literal> which means <emphasis>Command Line
Interface</emphasis>. As the name implies, this <literal>SAPI</literal> type
main focus is on developing shell (or desktop as well) applications with
PHP. There are quite a few differences between the
<literal>CLI SAPI</literal> and other <literal>SAPI</literal>s which are
explained in this chapter. It's worth mentioning
that <literal>CLI</literal> and <literal>CGI</literal> are different
SAPI's although they do share many of the same behaviors.
</para>
<para>
The <literal>CLI SAPI</literal> was released for the first time with
PHP 4.2.0, but was still experimental and had
to be explicitly enabled with <option role="configure">--enable-cli</option> when running
<command>./configure</command>. Since PHP 4.3.0 the
<literal>CLI SAPI</literal> is no longer experimental and the option
<option role="configure">--enable-cli</option> is on by default. You may use
<option role="configure">--disable-cli</option> to disable it.
</para>
<para>
As of PHP 4.3.0, the name, location and existence of the CLI/CGI binaries
will differ depending on how PHP is installed on your system. By default
when executing <command>make</command>, both the CGI and CLI are built and
placed as <filename>sapi/cgi/php</filename> and <filename>sapi/cli/php</filename>
respectively, in your PHP source directory. You will note that both are
named php. What happens during <command>make install</command> depends on
your configure line. If a module SAPI is chosen during configure, such as apxs, or the
<option role="configure">--disable-cgi</option> option is used, the CLI is copied to
<filename>{PREFIX}/bin/php</filename> during <command>make install</command>
otherwise the CGI is placed there. So, for example, if <option role="configure">--with--apxs
</option> is in your configure line then the CLI is copied to
<filename>{PREFIX}/bin/php</filename> during <command>make
install</command>. If you want to override the installation of the CGI
binary, use <command>make install-cli</command> after <command>make
install</command>. Alternatively you can specify <option role="configure">
--disable-cgi</option> in your configure line.
</para>
<para>
<note>
<para>
Because both <option role="configure">--enable-cli</option> and
<option role="configure">--enable-cgi</option> are enabled by default,
simply having <option role="configure">--enable-cli</option> in your
configure line does not necessarily mean the CLI will be copied as
<filename>{PREFIX}/bin/php</filename> during <command>make install</command>.
</para>
</note>
</para>
<para>
The windows packages between PHP 4.2.0 and PHP 4.2.3 distributed the CLI as
<filename>php-cli.exe</filename>, living in the same folder as the CGI
<filename>php.exe</filename>. Starting with PHP 4.3.0 the windows package
distributes the CLI as <filename>php.exe</filename> in a separate folder
named <filename class="directory">cli</filename>, so <filename>cli/php.exe
</filename>. Starting with PHP 5, the CLI is distributed in the main folder,
named <filename>php.exe</filename>. The CGI version is distributed as
<filename>php-cgi.exe</filename>.
</para>
<para>
As of PHP 5, a new <filename>php-win.exe</filename> file is distributed.
This is equal to the CLI version, except that php-win doesn't output
anything and thus provides no console (no "dos box" appears on the screen).
This behavior is similar to php-gtk. You should configure with
<option role="configure">--enable-cli-win32</option>.
</para>
<para>
<note>
<title>What SAPI do I have?</title>
<para>
From a shell, typing <command>php -v</command> will tell you
whether <filename>php</filename> is CGI or CLI. See also the function
<function>php_sapi_name</function> and the constant <constant>
PHP_SAPI</constant>.
</para>
</note>
</para>
<para>
<note>
<para>
A Unix <literal>man</literal>ual page was added in PHP 4.3.2. You may
view this by typing <command>man php</command> in your shell environment.
</para>
</note>
</para>
<para>
Remarkable differences of the <literal>CLI SAPI</literal> compared to other
<literal>SAPI</literal>s:
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
Unlike the <literal>CGI SAPI</literal>, no headers are written to the
output.
</para>
<para>
Though the <literal>CGI SAPI</literal> provides a way to suppress HTTP
headers, there's no equivalent switch to enable them in the <literal>CLI
SAPI</literal>.
</para>
<para>
CLI is started up in quiet mode by default, though the <option>-q</option>
and <option>--no-header</option> switches are kept for compatibility so
that you can use older CGI scripts.
</para>
<para>
It does not change the working directory to that of the script.
(<option>-C</option> and <option>--no-chdir</option> switches kept for
compatibility)
</para>
<para>
Plain text error messages (no HTML formatting).
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
There are certain &php.ini; directives which are overridden by the <literal>CLI
SAPI</literal> because they do not make sense in shell environments:
</para>
<para>
<table>
<title>Overridden &php.ini; directives</title>
<tgroup cols="3">
<thead>
<row>
<entry>Directive</entry>
<entry><literal>CLI SAPI</literal> default value</entry>
<entry>Comment</entry>
</row>
</thead>
<tbody>
<row>
<entry><link linkend="ini.html-errors">html_errors</link></entry>
<entry>&false;</entry>
<entry>
It can be quite hard to read the error message in your shell when
it's cluttered with all those meaningless <literal>HTML</literal>
tags, therefore this directive defaults to &false;.
</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><link linkend="ini.implicit-flush">implicit_flush</link></entry>
<entry>&true;</entry>
<entry>
It is desired that any output coming from
<function>print</function>, <function>echo</function> and friends is
immediately written to the output and not cached in any buffer. You
still can use <link linkend="ref.outcontrol">output buffering</link>
if you want to defer or manipulate standard output.
</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><link linkend="ini.max-execution-time">max_execution_time</link></entry>
<entry>0 (unlimited)</entry>
<entry>
Due to endless possibilities of using PHP in
shell environments, the maximum execution time has been set to
unlimited. Whereas applications written for the web are often
executed very quickly, shell application tend to have a much
longer execution time.
</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><link linkend="ini.register-argc-argv">register_argc_argv</link></entry>
<entry>&true;</entry>
<entry>
<para>
Because this setting is &true; you will always have access to
<emphasis>argc</emphasis> (number of arguments passed to the
application) and <emphasis>argv</emphasis> (array of the actual
arguments) in the <literal>CLI SAPI</literal>.
</para>
<para>
As of PHP 4.3.0, the PHP variables <varname>$argc</varname>
and <varname>$argv</varname> are registered and filled in with the appropriate
values when using the <literal>CLI SAPI</literal>. Prior to this version,
the creation of these variables behaved as they do in
<literal>CGI</literal> and <literal>MODULE</literal> versions
which requires the PHP directive
<link linkend="ini.register-globals">register_globals</link> to
be <emphasis>on</emphasis>. Regardless of version or register_globals
setting, you can always go through either
<link linkend="reserved.variables.server">$_SERVER</link> or
<varname>$HTTP_SERVER_VARS</varname>. Example:
<varname>$_SERVER['argv']</varname>
</para>
</entry>
</row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</table>
</para>
<note>
<para>
These directives cannot be initialized with another value from the
configuration file &php.ini; or a custom one (if specified). This is a
limitation because those default values are applied after all
configuration files have been parsed. However, their value can be changed
during runtime (which does not make sense for all of those directives,
e.g. <link linkend="ini.register-argc-argv">register_argc_argv</link>).
</para>
</note>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
To ease working in the shell environment, the following constants
are defined:
<table>
<title>CLI specific Constants</title>
<tgroup cols="2">
<thead>
<row>
<entry>Constant</entry>
<entry>Description</entry>
</row>
</thead>
<tbody>
<row>
<entry><constant>STDIN</constant></entry>
<entry>
An already opened stream to <literal>stdin</literal>. This saves
opening it with
<programlisting role="php">
<![CDATA[
<?php
$stdin = fopen('php://stdin', 'r');
?>
]]>
</programlisting>
If you want to read single line from <literal>stdin</literal>, you can
use
<programlisting role="php">
<![CDATA[
<?php
$line = trim(fgets(STDIN)); // reads one line from STDIN
fscanf(STDIN, "%d\n", $number); // reads number from STDIN
?>
]]>
</programlisting>
</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><constant>STDOUT</constant></entry>
<entry>
An already opened stream to <literal>stdout</literal>. This saves
opening it with
<programlisting role="php">
<![CDATA[
<?php
$stdout = fopen('php://stdout', 'w');
?>
]]>
</programlisting>
</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><constant>STDERR</constant></entry>
<entry>
An already opened stream to <literal>stderr</literal>. This saves
opening it with
<programlisting role="php">
<![CDATA[
<?php
$stderr = fopen('php://stderr', 'w');
?>
]]>
</programlisting>
</entry>
</row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</table>
</para>
<para>
Given the above, you don't need to open e.g. a stream for
<literal>stderr</literal> yourself but simply use the constant instead of
the stream resource:
<programlisting role="shell">
<![CDATA[
php -r 'fwrite(STDERR, "stderr\n");'
]]>
</programlisting>
You do not need to explicitly close these streams, as they are closed
automatically by PHP when your script ends.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
The <literal>CLI SAPI</literal> does <emphasis
role="strong">not</emphasis> change the current directory to the directory
of the executed script!
</para>
<para>
Example showing the difference to the <literal>CGI SAPI</literal>:
<programlisting role="php">
<![CDATA[
<?php
// Our simple test application named test.php
echo getcwd(), "\n";
?>
]]>
</programlisting>
</para>
<para>
When using the <literal>CGI</literal> version, the output is:
<screen>
<![CDATA[
$ pwd
/tmp
$ php -q another_directory/test.php
/tmp/another_directory
]]>
</screen>
This clearly shows that PHP changes its current
directory to the one of the executed script.
</para>
<para>
Using the <literal>CLI SAPI</literal> yields:
<screen>
<![CDATA[
$ pwd
/tmp
$ php -f another_directory/test.php
/tmp
]]>
</screen>
This allows greater flexibility when writing shell tools in
PHP.
</para>
<note>
<para>
The <literal>CGI SAPI</literal> supports the <literal>CLI SAPI</literal>
behaviour by means of the <option>-C</option> switch when run from the
command line.
</para>
</note>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</para>
<para>
The list of command line options provided by the PHP
binary can be queried anytime by running PHP with the
<option>-h</option> switch:
<screen>
<![CDATA[
Usage: php [options] [-f] <file> [args...]
php [options] -r <code> [args...]
php [options] [-- args...]
-s Display colour syntax highlighted source.
-w Display source with stripped comments and whitespace.
-f <file> Parse <file>.
-v Version number
-c <path>|<file> Look for php.ini file in this directory
-a Run interactively
-d foo[=bar] Define INI entry foo with value 'bar'
-e Generate extended information for debugger/profiler
-z <file> Load Zend extension <file>.
-l Syntax check only (lint)
-m Show compiled in modules
-i PHP information
-r <code> Run PHP <code> without using script tags <?..?>
-h This help
args... Arguments passed to script. Use -- args when first argument
starts with - or script is read from stdin
]]>
</screen>
</para>
<para>
The <literal>CLI SAPI</literal> has three different ways of getting the
PHP code you want to execute:
<orderedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
Telling PHP to execute a certain file.
</para>
<para>
<screen>
<![CDATA[
php my_script.php
php -f my_script.php
]]>
</screen>
Both ways (whether using the <option>-f</option> switch or not) execute
the file <filename>my_script.php</filename>. You can choose any file to
execute - your PHP scripts do not have to end with the
<literal>.php</literal> extension but can have any name or extension
you wish.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Pass the PHP code to execute directly on the command
line.
</para>
<para>
<screen>
<![CDATA[
php -r 'print_r(get_defined_constants());'
]]>
</screen>
Special care has to be taken in regards of shell variable substitution and
quoting usage.
</para>
<note>
<para>
Read the example carefully, there are no beginning or ending tags! The
<option>-r</option> switch simply does not need them. Using them will
lead to a parser error.
</para>
</note>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Provide the PHP code to execute via standard input
(<literal>stdin</literal>).
</para>
<para>
This gives the powerful ability to dynamically create
PHP code and feed it to the binary, as shown in this
(fictional) example:
<screen>
<![CDATA[
$ some_application | some_filter | php | sort -u >final_output.txt
]]>
</screen>
</para>
</listitem>
</orderedlist>
You cannot combine any of the three ways to execute code.
</para>
<para>
Like every shell application, the PHP binary
accepts a number of arguments but your PHP script can
also receive arguments. The number of arguments which can be passed to your script
is not limited by PHP (the shell has a certain size limit
in the number of characters which can be passed; usually you won't hit this
limit). The arguments passed to your script are available in the global
array <varname>$argv</varname>. The zero index always contains the script
name (which is <literal>-</literal> in case the PHP code
is coming from either standard input or from the command line switch
<option>-r</option>). The second registered global variable is
<varname>$argc</varname> which contains the number of elements in the
<varname>$argv</varname> array (<emphasis role="strong">not</emphasis> the
number of arguments passed to the script).
</para>
<para>
As long as the arguments you want to pass to your script do not start with
the <literal>-</literal> character, there's nothing special to watch out
for. Passing an argument to your script which starts with a
<literal>-</literal> will cause trouble because PHP
itself thinks it has to handle it. To prevent this, use the argument list
separator <literal>--</literal>. After this separator has been parsed by
PHP, every argument following it is passed
untouched to your script.
</para>
<para>
<screen>
<![CDATA[
# This will not execute the given code but will show the PHP usage
$ php -r 'var_dump($argv);' -h
Usage: php [options] [-f] <file> [args...]
[...]
# This will pass the '-h' argument to your script and prevent PHP from showing it's usage
$ php -r 'var_dump($argv);' -- -h
array(2) {
[0]=>
string(1) "-"
[1]=>
string(2) "-h"
}
]]>
</screen>
</para>
<para>
However, there's another way of using PHP for shell
scripting. You can write a script where the first line starts with
<literal>#!/usr/bin/php</literal>. Following this you can place
normal PHP code included within the PHP
starting and end tags. Once you have set the execution attributes of the file
appropriately (e.g. <command>chmod +x test</command>) your script can be
executed like a normal shell or perl script:
<programlisting role="php">
<![CDATA[
#!/usr/bin/php
<?php
var_dump($argv);
?>
]]>
</programlisting>
Assuming this file is named <filename>test</filename> in the current
directory, we can now do the following:
<screen>
<![CDATA[
$ chmod +x test
$ ./test -h -- foo
array(4) {
[0]=>
string(6) "./test"
[1]=>
string(2) "-h"
[2]=>
string(2) "--"
[3]=>
string(3) "foo"
}
]]>
</screen>
As you see, in this case no care needs to be taken when passing parameters
which start with <literal>-</literal> to your script.
</para>
<para>
Long options are available since PHP 4.3.3.
<table>
<title>Command line options</title>
<tgroup cols="2">
<thead>
<row>
<entry>Option</entry>
<entry>Long Option</entry>
<entry>Description</entry>
</row>
</thead>
<tbody>
<row>
<entry>-s</entry>
<entry>--syntax-highlight</entry>
<entry>
<para>
Display colour syntax highlighted source.
</para>
<para>
This option uses the internal mechanism to parse the file and produces
a <literal>HTML</literal> highlighted version of it and writes it to
standard output. Note that all it does it to generate a block of
<literal><code> [...] </code></literal>
<literal>HTML</literal> tags, no <literal>HTML</literal> headers.
</para>
<note>
<para>
This option does not work together with the <option>-r</option>
option.
</para>
</note>
</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>-s</entry>
<entry>--syntax-highlighting</entry>
<entry>
<para>
Alias of <option>--syntax-highlight</option>.
</para>
</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>-w</entry>
<entry>--strip</entry>
<entry>
<para>
Display source with stripped comments and whitespace.
</para>
<note>
<para>
This option does not work together with the <option>-r</option>
option.
</para>
</note>
</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>-f</entry>
<entry>--file</entry>
<entry>
<para>
Parses and executed the given filename to the <option>-f</option>
option. This switch is optional and can be left out. Only providing
the filename to execute is sufficient.
</para>
</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>-v</entry>
<entry>--version</entry>
<entry>
<para>
Writes the PHP, PHP SAPI, and Zend version to standard output, e.g.
<screen>
<![CDATA[
$ php -v
PHP 4.3.0 (cli), Copyright (c) 1997-2002 The PHP Group
Zend Engine v1.3.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2002 Zend Technologies
]]>
</screen>
</para>
</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>-c</entry>
<entry>--php-ini</entry>
<entry>
<para>
With this option one can either specify a directory where to look for
&php.ini; or you can specify a custom <literal>INI</literal> file
directly (which does not need to be named &php.ini;), e.g.:
<screen>
<![CDATA[
$ php -c /custom/directory/ my_script.php
$ php -c /custom/directory/custom-file.ini my_script.php
]]>
</screen>
If you don't specify this option, file is searched in
<link linkend="configuration.file">default locations</link>.
</para>
</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>-n</entry>
<entry>--no-php-ini</entry>
<entry>
<para>
Ignore &php.ini; at all. This switch is available since PHP 4.3.0.
</para>
</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>-d</entry>
<entry>--define</entry>
<entry>
<para>
This option allows you to set a custom value for any of the configuration
directives allowed in &php.ini;. The syntax is:
<screen>
<![CDATA[
-d configuration_directive[=value]
]]>
</screen>
</para>
<para>
Examples (lines are wrapped for layout reasons):
<screen>
<![CDATA[
# Omitting the value part will set the given configuration directive to "1"
$ php -d max_execution_time
-r '$foo = ini_get("max_execution_time"); var_dump($foo);'
string(1) "1"
# Passing an empty value part will set the configuration directive to ""
php -d max_execution_time=
-r '$foo = ini_get("max_execution_time"); var_dump($foo);'
string(0) ""
# The configuration directive will be set to anything passed after the '=' character
$ php -d max_execution_time=20
-r '$foo = ini_get("max_execution_time"); var_dump($foo);'
string(2) "20"
$ php
-d max_execution_time=doesntmakesense
-r '$foo = ini_get("max_execution_time"); var_dump($foo);'
string(15) "doesntmakesense"
]]>
</screen>
</para>
</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>-a</entry>
<entry>--interactive</entry>
<entry>
<para>
Runs PHP interactively.
<!--
mfischer, 20020510: Couldn't come up with a decent useful description
of the current implementation of the interactive mode.
-->
</para>
</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>-e</entry>
<entry>--profile-info</entry>
<entry>
<para>
Generate extended information for debugger/profiler.
<!--
mfischer, 20020510: Anyone who can provide more information what it
really does (even if it's only for developers) ?
-->
</para>
</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>-z</entry>
<entry>--zend-extension</entry>
<entry>
<para>
Load Zend extension. If only a filename is given, PHP tries to load
this extension from the current default library path on your system
(usually specified <filename>/etc/ld.so.conf</filename> on Linux
systems). Passing a filename with an absolute path information will
not use the systems library search path. A relative filename with a
directory information will tell PHP only to try to
load the extension relative to the current directory.
</para>
</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>-l</entry>
<entry>--syntax-check</entry>
<entry>
<para>
This option provides a convenient way to only perform a syntax check
on the given PHP code. On success, the text
<literal>No syntax errors detected in <filename></literal> is
written to standard output and the shell return code is
<literal>0</literal>. On failure, the text <literal>Errors parsing
<filename></literal> in addition to the internal parser error
message is written to standard output and the shell return code is set
to <literal>255</literal>.
</para>
<para>
This option won't find fatal errors (like undefined functions). Use
<option>-f</option> if you would like to test for fatal errors too.
</para>
<note>
<para>
This option does not work together with the <option>-r</option>
option.
</para>
</note>
</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>-m</entry>
<entry>--modules</entry>
<entry>
<para>
Using this option, PHP prints out the built in (and loaded) PHP and
Zend modules:
<screen>
<![CDATA[
$ php -m
[PHP Modules]
xml
tokenizer
standard
session
posix
pcre
overload
mysql
mbstring
ctype
[Zend Modules]
]]>
</screen>
</para>
</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>-i</entry>
<entry>--info</entry>
<entry>
This command line option calls <function>phpinfo</function>, and prints
out the results. If PHP is not working correctly, it is
advisable to use <command>php -i</command> and see whether any error
messages are printed out before or in place of the information tables.
Beware that when using the CGI mode the output is in <literal>HTML</literal>
and therefore quite huge.
</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>-r</entry>
<entry>--run</entry>
<entry>
<para>
This option allows execution of PHP right from
within the command line. The PHP start and end tags
(<literal><?php</literal> and <literal>?></literal>) are
<emphasis role="strong">not needed</emphasis> and will cause a parser
error if present.
</para>
<note>
<para>
Care has to be taken when using this form of PHP
to not collide with command line variable substitution done by the
shell.
</para>
<para>
Example showing a parser error
<screen>
<![CDATA[
$ php -r "$foo = get_defined_constants();"
Command line code(1) : Parse error - parse error, unexpected '='
]]>
</screen>
The problem here is that the sh/bash performs variable substitution
even when using double quotes <literal>"</literal>. Since the
variable <varname>$foo</varname> is unlikely to be defined, it
expands to nothing which results in the code passed to
PHP for execution actually reading:
<screen>
<![CDATA[
$ php -r " = get_defined_constants();"
]]>
</screen>
The correct way would be to use single quotes <literal>'</literal>.
Variables in single-quoted strings are not expanded
by sh/bash.
<screen>
<![CDATA[
$ php -r '$foo = get_defined_constants(); var_dump($foo);'
array(370) {
["E_ERROR"]=>
int(1)
["E_WARNING"]=>
int(2)
["E_PARSE"]=>
int(4)
["E_NOTICE"]=>
int(8)
["E_CORE_ERROR"]=>
[...]
]]>
</screen>
If you are using a shell different from sh/bash, you might experience
further issues. Feel free to open a bug report at
<ulink url="&url.php.bugs;">&url.php.bugs;</ulink>or send a mail to
&email.php.doc;.
One can still easily run into troubles when trying to get shell
variables into the code or using backslashes for escaping. You've
been warned. <!-- :-) -->
</para>
</note>
<note>
<para>
<option>-r</option> is available in the <emphasis>CLI</emphasis>
SAPI and not in the <emphasis>CGI</emphasis> SAPI.
</para>
</note>
</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>-h</entry>
<entry>--help</entry>
<entry>
With this option, you can get information about the actual list of
command line options and some one line descriptions about what they do.
</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>-?</entry>
<entry>--usage</entry>
<entry>
Alias of <option>--help</option>.
</entry>
</row>
<!--
new, not in PHP 4.3.4, but are in php_cli.c 1.102 or cgi_main.c 1.243
-b <address:port>|<port> bindpath Bind Path for external FASTCGI Server mode, only CGI, no Windows
-B <begin_code> process-begin Run PHP <begin_code> before processing input lines
-R <code> process-code Run PHP <code> for every input line
-F <file> process-file Parse and execute <file> for every input line
-E <end_code> process-end Run PHP <end_code> after processing all input lines
-H hide-args Hide any passed arguments from external tools.
-g global Define global variables on command line
-->
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</table>
</para>
<!-- NEW DOCUMENTATION ENDS -->
<!-- OLD DOCUMENTED STARTS
mfischer, 20020510: I've commented out the start paragraphs of the old
documentation as it is meant to be replaced by the new one.
<para>
The command line options of the PHP executable are useful
if you would like to debug or test your PHP setup, but they
can also be handy, if you would like to use PHP for a
different purpose than web scripting.
</para>
<para>
Note, that you can always direct the output of the PHP
executable to an external file with the > character,
so <literal>php -q test.php > test.html</literal> will
print out the output of <filename>test.php</filename>
without HTTP headers to the <filename>test.html</filename>
file in the same directory.
</para>
<para>
You can only use these command line options if you have
the PHP executable. If you built the server module
version, and you have no CGI version available on your
machine, than you have no chance to use these options.
For Windows users both the PHP executable and the server
modules are in the binary package, the executable is
named <filename>php.exe</filename>.
</para>
-->
<para>
The PHP executable can be used to run PHP scripts absolutely independent
from the web server. If you are on a Unix system, you should add a special
first line to your PHP script, and make it executable, so the system will
know, what program should run the script. On a Windows platform you can
associate <filename>php.exe</filename> with the double click option of the
<literal>.php</literal> files, or you can make a batch
file to run the script through PHP. The first line added to the script to
work on Unix won't hurt on Windows, so you can write cross platform programs
this way. A simple example of writing a command line PHP program can be
found below.
</para>
<para>
<example>
<title>Script intended to be run from command line (script.php)</title>
<programlisting role="php">
<![CDATA[
#!/usr/bin/php
<?php
if ($argc != 2 || in_array($argv[1], array('--help', '-help', '-h', '-?'))) {
?>
This is a command line PHP script with one option.
Usage:
<?php echo $argv[0]; ?> <option>
<option> can be some word you would like
to print out. With the --help, -help, -h,
or -? options, you can get this help.
<?php
} else {
echo $argv[1];
}
?>
]]>
</programlisting>
</example>
</para>
<para>
In the script above, we used the special first line to indicate
that this file should be run by PHP. We work with a CLI version
here, so there will be no HTTP header printouts. There are two
variables you can use while writing command line applications with
PHP: <varname>$argc</varname> and <varname>$argv</varname>. The
first is the number of arguments plus one (the name of the script
running). The second is an array containing the arguments, starting
with the script name as number zero (<varname>$argv[0]</varname>).
</para>
<para>
In the program above we checked if there are less or more than one
arguments. Also if the argument was <option>--help</option>,
<option>-help</option>, <option>-h</option> or <option>-?</option>,
we printed out the help message, printing the script name dynamically.
If we received some other argument we echoed that out.
</para>
<para>
If you would like to run the above script on Unix, you need to
make it executable, and simply call it as
<command>script.php echothis</command> or
<command>script.php -h</command>. On Windows, you can make a
batch file for this task:
</para>
<para>
<example>
<title>Batch file to run a command line PHP script (script.bat)</title>
<programlisting role="shell">
<![CDATA[
@c:\php\cli\php.exe script.php %1 %2 %3 %4
]]>
</programlisting>
</example>
</para>
<para>
Assuming you named the above program
<filename>script.php</filename>, and you have your
CLI <filename>php.exe</filename> in
<filename>c:\php\cli\php.exe</filename> this batch file
will run it for you with your added options:
<command>script.bat echothis</command> or
<command>script.bat -h</command>.
</para>
<para>
See also the <link linkend="ref.readline">Readline</link>
extension documentation for more functions you can use
to enhance your command line applications in PHP.
</para>
</chapter>
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