php(1) Scripting Language php(1)
NAME
php - PHP Command Line Interface 'CLI'
php-cgi - PHP Common Gateway Interface 'CGI' command
SYNOPSIS
php [options] [ -f ] file [[--] args...]
php [options] -r code [[--] args...]
php [options] [-B begin_code] -R code [-E end_code] [[--] args...]
php [options] [-B begin_code] -F file [-E end_code] [[--] args...]
php [options] -- [ args...]
php [options] -a
php [options] -S addr:port [-t docroot]
DESCRIPTION
PHP is a widely-used general-purpose scripting language that is espe-
cially suited for Web development and can be embedded into HTML. This is
the command line interface that enables you to do the following:
You can parse and execute files by using parameter -f followed by the
name of the file to be executed.
Using parameter -r you can directly execute PHP code simply as you would
do inside a .php file when using the eval() function.
It is also possible to process the standard input line by line using ei-
ther the parameter -R or -F. In this mode each separate input line
causes the code specified by -R or the file specified by -F to be exe-
cuted. You can access the input line by $argn. While processing the in-
put lines $argi contains the number of the actual line being processed.
Further more the parameters -B and -E can be used to execute code (see
-r) before and after all input lines have been processed respectively.
Notice that the input is read from STDIN and therefore reading from
STDIN explicitly changes the next input line or skips input lines.
PHP also contains an built-in web server for application development
purpose. By using the -S option where addr:port point to a local address
and port PHP will listen to HTTP requests on that address and port and
serve files from the current working directory or the docroot passed by
the -t option.
If a PHP file is provided to the command line when the built-in web
server is used, it will be used as the router script. This script will
be started at each HTTP request. The script output is returned to the
browser, unless the router script returns the false value. If so, the
built-in server falls back to the default behaviour, returning the re-
quested resource as-is by looking up the files relative to the document
root specified by the -t option, if provided.
If none of -r -f -B -R -F -E or -S is present but a single parameter is
given then this parameter is taken as the filename to parse and execute
(same as with -f). If no parameter is present then the standard input is
read and executed.
OPTIONS
--interactive
-a Run PHP interactively. This lets you enter snippets of
PHP code that directly get executed. When readline sup-
port is enabled you can edit the lines and also have his-
tory support.
--bindpath address:port|port
-b address:port|port
Bind Path for external FASTCGI Server mode (CGI only).
--no-chdir
-C Do not chdir to the script's directory (CGI only).
--no-header
-q Quiet-mode. Suppress HTTP header output (CGI only).
--timing count
-T count Measure execution time of script repeated count times
(CGI only).
--php-ini path|file
-c path|file Look for php.ini file in the directory path or use the
specified file
--no-php-ini
-n No php.ini file will be used
--define foo[=bar]
-d foo[=bar] Define INI entry foo with value bar
-e Generate extended information for debugger/profiler
--file file
-f file Parse and execute file
--help
-h This help
--hide-args
-H Hide script name (file) and parameters (args...) from ex-
ternal tools. For example you may want to use this when a
php script is started as a daemon and the command line
contains sensitive data such as passwords.
--info
-i PHP information and configuration
--syntax-check
-l Syntax check only (lint)
--modules
-m Show compiled in modules
--run code
-r code Run PHP code without using script tags '<?..?>'
--process-begin code
-B begin_code Run PHP begin_code before processing input lines
--process-code code
-R code Run PHP code for every input line
--process-file file
-F file Parse and execute file for every input line
--process-end code
-E end_code Run PHP end_code after processing all input lines
--syntax-highlight
-s Output HTML syntax highlighted source
--server addr:port
-S addr:port Start built-in web server on the given local address and
port
--docroot docroot
-t docroot Specify the document root to be used by the built-in web
server
--version
-v Version number
--strip
-w Output source with stripped comments and whitespace
--zend-extension file
-z file Load Zend extension file
args... Arguments passed to script. Use '--' args when first ar-
gument starts with '-' or script is read from stdin
--rfunction name
--rf name Shows information about function name
--rclass name
--rc name Shows information about class name
--rextension name
--re name Shows information about extension name
--rzendextension
name
--rz name Shows information about Zend extension name
--rextinfo name
--ri name Shows configuration for extension name
--ini Show configuration file names
FILES
/etc/php/@PHP_MAJOR_VERSION@.@PHP_MINOR_VERSION@/cli/php.ini
The configuration file for the CLI version of PHP.
+.B /etc/php/@PHP_MAJOR_VERSION@.@PHP_MINOR_VERSION@/cgi/php.ini
+The configuration file for the CGI version of PHP. +.TP
+.B /etc/php/@PHP_MAJOR_VERSION@.@PHP_MINOR_VER-
SION@/apache2/php.ini +The configuration file for the
version of PHP that apache2 uses.
EXAMPLES
php -r 'echo "Hello World\n";'
This command simply writes the text "Hello World" to standard out.
php -r 'print_r(gd_info());'
This shows the configuration of your gd extension. You can use this
to easily check which image formats you can use. If you have any
dynamic modules you may want to use the same ini file that php uses
when executed from your webserver. There are more extensions which
have such a function. For dba use:
php -r 'print_r(dba_handlers(1));'
php -R 'echo strip_tags($argn)."\n";'
This PHP command strips off the HTML tags line by line and outputs
the result. To see how it works you can first look at the following
PHP command ´php -d html_errors=1 -i´ which uses PHP to output HTML
formatted configuration information. If you then combine those two
´php ...|php ...´ you'll see what happens.
php -E 'echo "Lines: $argi\n";'
Using this PHP command you can count the lines being input.
php -R '@$l+=count(file($argn));' -E 'echo "Lines:$l\n";'
In this example PHP expects each input line being a file. It counts
all lines of the files specified by each input line and shows the
summarized result. You may combine this with tools like find and
change the php scriptlet.
php -R 'echo "$argn\n"; fgets(STDIN);'
Since you have access to STDIN from within -B -R -F and -E you can
skip certain input lines with your code. But note that in such
cases $argi only counts the lines being processed by php itself.
Having read this you will guess what the above program does: skip-
ping every second input line.
TIPS
You can use a shebang line to automatically invoke php from scripts.
Only the CLI version of PHP will ignore such a first line as shown be-
low:
#!/bin/php
<?php
// your script
?>
SEE ALSO
For a more or less complete description of PHP look here:
https://www.php.net/manual/
BUGS
You can view the list of known bugs or report any new bug you found at:
https://github.com/php/php-src/issues
AUTHORS
The PHP Group: Thies C. Arntzen, Stig Bakken, Andi Gutmans, Rasmus Ler-
dorf, Sam Ruby, Sascha Schumann, Zeev Suraski, Jim Winstead, Andrei
Zmievski.
Additional work for the CLI sapi was done by Edin Kadribasic, Marcus
Boerger and Johannes Schlueter.
A List of active developers can be found here:
https://www.php.net/credits.php
And last but not least PHP was developed with the help of a huge amount
of contributors all around the world.
VERSION INFORMATION
This manpage describes php, version 8.4.11.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright © The PHP Group
This source file is subject to version 3.01 of the PHP license, that is
bundled with this package in the file LICENSE, and is available through
the world-wide-web at the following url:
https://www.php.net/license/3_01.txt
If you did not receive a copy of the PHP license and are unable to ob-
tain it through the world-wide-web, please send a note to li-
cense@php.net so we can mail you a copy immediately.
The PHP Group 2024 php(1)
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