doc-en/features/commandline.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
<!-- $Revision: 1.11 $ -->
<chapter id="features.commandline">
 <title>Using PHP from the command line</title>
 <!-- NEW DOCUMENTATION STARTS -->
 <para>
  As of version 4.3, <literal>PHP</literal> 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
  <literal>PHP</literal>.  There are quite some differences between the
  <literal>CLI SAPI</literal> and other <literal>SAPI</literal>s which are
  further explained throughout this chapter.
 </para>
 <para>
  The <literal>CLI SAPI</literal> was released for the first time with
  <literal>PHP 4.2.0</literal>, but was still experimental back then and had
  to be explicitely enabled with <literal>--enable-cli</literal> when running
  <literal>./configure</literal>. Since <literal>PHP 4.3.0</literal> the
  <literal>CLI SAPI</literal> is no longer experimental and is therefore
  <emphasis role="strong">always</emphasis> built and installed as the
  <filename>php</filename> (called <filename>php.exe</filename> on Windows)
  binary.
 </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> provies a way to suppress HTTP
     headers, there's not equivalent switch to enable them in the <literal>CLI
     SAPI</literal>.
    </para>
    <para>
	  CLI is started up in quiet mode by default. But <literal>-q</literal>
	  switch is 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.
	  (<literal>-C</literal> switch kept for compatibility)
    </para>
    <para>
	  Plain text error messages (no HTML formatting).
    </para>
   </listitem>
   <listitem>
    <para>
     The are certain &php.ini; directives which are overriden by the <literal>CLI
     SAPI</literal> because they do not make sense in shell environments:
     <table>
      <title>Overriden &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
          immidiately 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 <literal>PHP</literal> in
          shell environments, the maximum execution time has been set to
          unlimited. Whereas applications written for the web are executed
          within splits of a seconds, 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>
          The global <literal>PHP</literal> variables <literal>$argc</literal>
          (number of arguments passed to the application) and
          <literal>$argv</literal> (array of the actual arguments) are always
          registered and filled in with the appropriate values when using the
          <literal>CLI SAPI</literal>.
         </entry>
        </row>
       </tbody>
      </tgroup>
     </table>
    </para>
    <note>
     <para>
      These directives cannot be initialzied 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">
$stdin = fopen('php://stdin', 'r');
         </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">
$stdout = fopen('php://stdout', 'w');
         </programlisting>
         </entry>
        </row>
        <row>
         <entry><constant>STDERR</constant></entry>
         <entry>
         An already opened stream to <literal>stdout</literal>. This saves
         opening it with
         <programlisting role="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="php">
php -r 'fwrite(STDERR, "stderr\n");'
     </programlisting>
     You do not need to explicitly close these streams, this is automatically
     done by <literal>PHP</literal>.
    </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 */
    echo getcwd(), "\n";
?>
]]>
     </programlisting>
    </para>
    <para>
     When using the <literal>CGI</literal> version, the output is
     <screen>
<![CDATA[
$ pwd
/tmp

$ php-cgi -f another_directory/test.php
/tmp/another_directory
]]>
     </screen>
     This clearly shows that <literal>PHP</literal> 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
     <literal>PHP</literal>.
    </para>
    <note>
     <para>
      The <literal>CGI SAPI</literal> supports the <literal>CLI SAPI</literal>
      behaviour by means of the <literal>-C</literal> switch when ran from the
      command line.
     </para>
    </note>
   </listitem>
  </itemizedlist>
 </para>
 <para>
  The list of command line options provided by the <literal>PHP</literal>
  binary can be queried anytime by running <literal>PHP</literal> with the
  <literal>-h</literal> 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
  <literal>PHP</literal> code you want to execute:
  <orderedlist>
   <listitem>
    <para>
     Telling <literal>PHP</literal> to execute a certain file.
    </para>
    <para>
     <screen>
<![CDATA[
php my_script.php

php -f my_script.php
]]>
     </screen>
     Both ways (using the <literal>-f</literal> switch or not) execute the
     given file <filename>my_script.php</filename>. You can choose any file to
     execute, your <literal>PHP</literal> scripts do not have to end with the
     <filename>.php</filename> extension but can give them any name or extension
     you want them to have.
    </para>
   </listitem>
   <listitem>
    <para>
     Pass the <literal>PHP</literal> 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, thera are no beginning or ending tags! The
      <literal>-r</literal> switch simply does not need them. Using them will
      lead to a parser error.
     </para>
    </note>
   </listitem>
   <listitem>
    <para>
     Provide the <literal>PHP</literal> code to execute via standard input
     (<literal>stdin</literal>).
    </para>
    <para>
     This gives the powerful ability to dynamically create
     <literal>PHP</literal> 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 <literal>PHP</literal> binary
  accepts a number of arguments but also your <literal>PHP</literal> script
  can receive them. The number of arguments which can be passed to your script
  is not limited by <literal>PHP</literal> (the shell has a certain size limit
  in numbers 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 <literal>$argv</literal>. The zero index always contains the script
  name (which is <literal>-</literal> in case the <literal>PHP</literal> code
  is coming from either standard input or from the command line switch
  <literal>-r</literal>). The second registered global variable is
  <literal>$argc</literal> which contains the number of elements in the
  <literal>$argv</literal> 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 <literal>PHP</literal>
   itself thinks it has to handle it. To prevent this use the argument list
   separator <literal>--</literal>. After the argument has been parsed by
   <literal>PHP</literal>, every argument following it is passed
   untoched/unparsed to your script.
 </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($argv);' -- -h
array(2) {
  [0]=>
  string(1) "-"
  [1]=>
  string(2) "-h"
}
]]>
 </screen>
 <para>
  However, there's another way of using <literal>PHP</literal> for shell
  scripting. You can write a script where the first line starts with
  <literal>#!/usr/bin/php</literal> and then following the normal
  <literal>PHP</literal> code included within the <literal>PHP</literal>
  starting and end tags and set the execution attributes of the file
  appropriately. This way it can be executed like a normal shell or perl
  script:
  <programlisting role="php">
<![CDATA[
#!/usr/bin/php
<?php
    var_dump($argv);
?>
]]>
  </programlisting>
  Assuming this file is named <filename>test</filename> in the current
  directory, we can now do the following:
  <screen>
<![CDATA[
$ chmod 755 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 no care has to be taken when passing parameters to your script
  which start with <literal>-</literal>.
 </para>
 <para>
  <table>
   <title>Command line options</title>
   <tgroup cols="2">
    <thead>
     <row>
      <entry>Option</entry>
      <entry>Description</entry>
     </row>
    </thead>
    <tbody>
     <row>
      <entry>-s</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>&lt;code&gt; [...] &lt;/code&gt;</literal>
        <literal>HTML</literal> tags, no <literal>HTML</literal> headers.
       </para>
       <note>
        <para>
         This option does not work together with the <literal>-r</literal>
         option.
        </para>
       </note>
      </entry>
     </row>
     <row>
      <entry>-w</entry>
      <entry>
       <para>
        Display source with stripped comments and whitespace.
       </para>
       <note>
        <para>
         This option does not work together with the <literal>-r</literal>
         option.
        </para>
       </note>
      </entry>
     </row>
     <row>
      <entry>-f</entry>
      <entry>
       <para>
        Parses and executed the given filename to the <literal>-f</literal>
        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>
       <para>
        Writes the PHP, PHP SAPI, and Zend version to standard output, e.g.
        <screen>
<![CDATA[
$ php -v
PHP 4.3.0-dev (cli), Copyright (c) 1997-2002 The PHP Group
Zend Engine v1.2.1, Copyright (c) 1998-2002 Zend Technologies
]]>
        </screen>
       </para>
      </entry>
     </row>
     <row>
      <entry>-c</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>
       </para>
      </entry>
     </row>
     <row>
      <entry>-a</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>-d</entry>
      <entry>
       <para>
        This option allows 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:
        <screen>
<![CDATA[
# Ommiting 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>-e</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>
       <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 <literal>PHP</literal> only to try to
        load the extension relative to the current directory.
       </para>
      </entry>
     </row>
     <row>
      <entry>-l</entry>
      <entry>
       <para>
        This option provides a convenient way to only perform a syntax check
        on the given <literal>PHP</literal> code. On succes, the text
        <literal>No syntax errors detected in &lt;filename&gt;</literal> is
        written to standard output and the shell return code is
        <literal>0</literal>. On failure, the text <literal>Errors parsing
        &lt;filename&gt;</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
        <literal>-f</literal> if you would like to test for fatal errors too.
       </para>
       <note>
        <para>
         This option does not work together with the <literal>-r</literal>
         option.
        </para>
       </note>
      </entry>
     </row>
     <row>
      <entry>-m</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>
       This command line option calls <function>phpinfo</function>, and prints
       out the results. If <literal>PHP</literal> is not working well, it is
       advisable to make a <literal>php -i</literal> and see if any error
       messages are printed out before or in place of the information tables.
       Beware that the output is in <literal>HTML</literal> and therefore
       quite huge.
      </entry>
     </row>
     <row>
      <entry>-r</entry>
      <entry>
       <para>
        This option allows execution of <literal>PHP</literal> right from
        within the command line. The <literal>PHP</literal> start and end tags
        (<literal>&lt;?php</literal> and <literal>?&gt;</literal>) are
        <emphasis role="strong">not needed</emphasis> and will cause a parser
        errors.
       </para>
       <note>
        <para>
         Care has to be taken when using this form of <literal>PHP</literal>
         to not collide with command line variable substitution done by the
         shell.
        </para>
        <para>
         Example showing a parser error
         <screen>
<![CDATA[
$ php -r "$foo = get_defined_constants();"
Command line code(1) : Parse error - parse error, unexpected '='
]]>
         </screen>
         The problem here is that the sh/bash performs variable substritution
         even when using double quotes <literal>"</literal>. Since the
         variable <literal>$foo</literal> is unlikely to be defined, it
         expands to nothing which results in being the code passed to
         <literal>PHP</literal> for executin in fact reads:
         <screen>
<![CDATA[
$ php -r " = get_defined_constants();"
]]>
         </screen>
         The correct way would be to use single quotes <literal>'</literal>.
         variables in strings quoted with single quotes 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 or send a mail to
         phpdoc@lists.php.net.

         One still can easily run intro troubles when trying to get shell
         variables into the code or using backslashes for escaping. You've
         been warned. <!-- :-) -->
        </para>
       </note>
      </entry>
     </row>
     <row>
      <entry>-h</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>
    </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 &gt; 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>
  This list of command line options is consistent with PHP 4.0.6.
  You can get the actual list and some one line descriptions
  with the <literal>-h</literal> option. The output of
  <literal>php -h</literal> should be something like this:
  <screen>
<![CDATA[
Usage: php [-q] [-h] [-s [-v] [-i] [-f <file>] |  {<file> [args...]}
  -q             Quiet-mode.  Suppress HTTP Header output.
  -s             Display colour syntax highlighted source.
  -f <file>      Parse <file>.  Implies `-q'
  -v             Version number
  -C             Do not chdir to the script's directory
  -c <path>      Look for php.ini file in this directory
  -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
  -h             This help
]]>
  </screen>
 </para>
 <para>
  Here we list some of the most important command line options
  with detailed explanations.
 </para>
 <para>
  <table>
   <title>Command line options</title>
   <tgroup cols="2">
    <thead>
     <row>
      <entry>Option</entry>
      <entry>Description</entry>
     </row>
    </thead>
    <tbody>
     <row>
      <entry>-q</entry>
      <entry>
       Suppress HTTP headers output. Normally PHP prints out
       HTTP headers for the calling program (ie. webserver)
       to hand on to the browser. When writing command line
       applications these headers are useless.
      </entry>
     </row>
     <row>
      <entry>-s</entry>
      <entry>
       Display the color highlighted source of the file
       given with its name. This is the same as if you were
       printing out the source using the
       <function>highlight_file</function> function in
       a PHP script.
      </entry>
     </row>
     <row>
      <entry>-f</entry>
      <entry>
       Parse the file given, and search for syntactical and
       fatal errors. This option implies -q. Use for
       debugging purposes.
      </entry>
     </row>
     <row>
      <entry>-v</entry>
      <entry>
       By calling PHP with this option, you can ask
       it to print out its version number, ie: 4.0.6. 
      </entry>
     </row>
     <row>
      <entry>-C</entry>
      <entry>
       Normally PHP changes the working directory to the
       running scripts directory. This makes it possible
       for example, to open files in the same directory,
       with only specifying the name of the file. If you
       would like to disable this directory change, use
       this option.
      </entry>
     </row>
     <row>
      <entry>-c</entry>
      <entry>
       Using this option, you can specify an alternative
       &php.ini; path, so PHP will
       search your configurations file in this path
       instead of the default one.
      </entry>
     </row>
     <row>
      <entry>-d</entry>
      <entry>
       With this option, you can set individual 
       &php.ini; settings in the
       time of running a script.
      </entry>
     </row>
     <row>
      <entry>-l</entry>
      <entry>
       Check the file given for syntax errors. This
       option implies -q. Use for debugging purposes.
       This option won't find fatal errors (like undefined
       functions). Use -f if you would like to test
       for fatal errors too.
      </entry>
     </row>
     <row>
      <entry>-m</entry>
      <entry>
       Using this option, PHP prints out the built in
       (and loaded) PHP and Zend modules, the PHP
       and Zend version numbers, and a short Zend
       copyright notice.
      </entry>
     </row>
     <row>
      <entry>-i</entry>
      <entry>
       This command line option calls
       <function>phpinfo</function>, and prints
       out the results. If PHP is not working well,
       it is advisable to make a <literal>php -i</literal>
       and see if any error messages are printed out
       before or in place of the information tables.
      </entry>
     </row>
     <row>
      <entry>-h</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>
    </tbody>
   </tgroup>
  </table>
 </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 <literal>php.exe</literal> 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>
 <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 $argv[1];
}
?>
]]>
  </programlisting>
 </example>
 <para>
  In the script above, we used the special first line to indicate,
  that this file should be run by PHP. We work with a CLI version
  here, so there will be no HTTP header printouts. There are two
  variables you can use while writing command line applications with
  PHP: <varname>$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 <literal>--help</literal>,
  <literal>-help</literal>, <literal>-h</literal> or <literal>-?</literal>,
  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
  <literal>script.php echothis</literal> or
  <literal>script.php -h</literal>. On Windows, you can make a
  batch file for this task:
 </para>
 <example>
  <title>Batch file to run a command line PHP script (script.bat)</title>
  <programlisting role="winbat">
@c:\php\php.exe script.php %1 %2 %3 %4
  </programlisting>
 </example>
 <para>
  Assuming, you named the above program as
  <filename>script.php</filename>, and you have your
  <filename>php.exe</filename> in
  <filename>c:\php\php.exe</filename> this batch file
  will run it for you with your added options:
  <literal>script.bat echothis</literal> or
  <literal>script.bat -h</literal>.
 </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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