How to Execute PHP Code from the Command Line

Execute a string of PHP code on the command line

Yep, it's there in PHP 5.2's cli SAPI.

If you cannot upgrade and that's the case that there's no such option in PHP 5.2 (I don't have it at hand to test), you can do this:

echo "<?php echo \"hi\\n\";" | php

hi

Original:

There is indeed a -r option (though I'm not sure about PHP 5.2):

php -r "echo 'hi';";

hi

Just make sure you are using the command line version of PHP. php --version should give you something like this (notice "cli"):

php --version

PHP 5.3.0 (cli) (built: May 20 2010 19:05:12) (DEBUG)
Copyright (c) 1997-2009 The PHP Group
Zend Engine v2.3.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2009 Zend Technologies

How can I execute PHP code from the command line?

If you're going to do PHP in the command line, I recommend you install phpsh, a decent PHP shell. It's a lot more fun.

Anyway, the php command offers two switches to execute code from the command line:

-r <code>        Run PHP <code> without using script tags <?..?>
-R <code>        Run PHP <code> for every input line

You can use php's -r switch as such:

php -r 'echo function_exists("foo") ? "yes" : "no";'

The above PHP command above should output no and returns 0 as you can see:

>>> php -r 'echo function_exists("foo") ? "yes" : "no";'
no
>>> echo $? # print the return value of the previous command
0

Another funny switch is php -a:

-a               Run as interactive shell

It's sort of lame compared to phpsh, but if you don't want to install the awesome interactive shell for PHP made by Facebook to get tab completion, history, and so on, then use -a as such:

>>> php -a
Interactive shell

php > echo function_exists("foo") ? "yes" : "no";
no
php >

If it doesn't work on your box like on my boxes (tested on Ubuntu and Arch Linux), then probably your PHP setup is fuzzy or broken. If you run this command:

php -i | grep 'API'

You should see:

Server API => Command Line Interface

If you don't, this means that maybe another command will provides the CLI SAPI. Try php-cli; maybe it's a package or a command available in your OS.

If you do see that your php command uses the CLI (command-line interface) SAPI (Server API), then run php -h | grep code to find out which crazy switch - as this hasn't changed for year- allows to run code in your version/setup.

Another couple of examples, just to make sure it works on my boxes:

>>> php -r 'echo function_exists("sg_load") ? "yes" : "no";'
no
>>> php -r 'echo function_exists("print_r") ? "yes" : "no";'
yes

Also, note that it is possible that an extension is loaded in the CLI and not in the CGI or Apache SAPI. It is likely that several PHP SAPIs use different php.ini files, e.g., /etc/php/cli/php.ini vs. /etc/php/cgi/php.ini vs. /etc/php/apache/php.ini on a Gentoo Linux box. Find out which ini file is used with php -i | grep ini.

Run PHP file in Command Line using PHP script

Use include_once 'next-file.php'; to import and run the code.

Then related to PHP Doc, here is the definition of exit():

Terminates execution of the script. Shutdown functions and object destructors will always be executed even if exit is called.

So add this code line into the shutdown function as below:

function shutdown()
{
  include_once 'next-file.php';
  echo "next-file is successfully running", PHP_EOL;
}

register_shutdown_function('shutdown');

Be sure to record this function before the exit().

Running PHP script from the command line

You should check your server configuration files. Look for lines that start with LoadModule php...
There probably are configuration files/directories named mods or something like that. Start from there.

You could also check output from php -r 'phpinfo();' | grep php and compare lines to phpinfo(); from web server.

To run php interactively:

(So you can paste/write code in the console.)

php -a

To make it parse a file and output to the console:

php -f file.php

Parse a file and output to another file:

php -f file.php > results.html

Do you need something else?

To run only a small part, one line or like, you can use:

php -r '$x = "Hello World"; echo "$x\n";'

If you are running Linux then do man php at the console.

If you need/want to run PHP through fpm (FastCGI Process Manager), use cli fcgi:

SCRIPT_NAME="file.php" SCRIP_FILENAME="file.php" REQUEST_METHOD="GET" cgi-fcgi -bind -connect "/var/run/php-fpm/php-fpm.sock"

Where /var/run/php-fpm/php-fpm.sock is your php-fpm socket file.

execute php script in command line from web page

You have to understand that exec doesn't have access to all the usual environment variables that would be in, for example, an SSH prompt. You need to provide the full path to PHP in your command. Probably something like

<?php exec('/usr/bin/php script.php'); ?>

Run .php file in Windows Command Prompt (cmd)

If running Windows 10:

1. Open the start menu
2. Type path
3. Click Edit the system environment variables (usually, it's the top search result) and continue on step 6 below.

If on older Windows:

1. Show Desktop.

2. Right Click My Computer shortcut in the desktop.

3. Click Properties.

4. You should see a section of control Panel - Control Panel\System and Security\System.

5. Click Advanced System Settings on the Left menu.

6. Click Enviornment Variables towards the bottom of the System Properties window.

7. Select PATH in the user variables list.

8. Append your PHP Path (C:\myfolder\php) to your PATH variable, separated from the already existing string by a semi colon.

9. Click OK

10. Open your "cmd"

11. Type PATH, press enter

12. Make sure that you see your PHP folder among the list.

That should work.

Note: Make sure that your PHP folder has the php.exe. It should have the file type CLI. If you do not have the php.exe, go ahead and check the installation guidelines at - http://www.php.net/manual/en/install.windows.manual.php - and download the installation file from there.

Running php file from command prompt and taking input

you can do this:

 $input = trim(fgets(STDIN));

fgets takes input from STDIN and waits for a linebreak.
The trim function makes sure you don't have that line break at the end.

So to add this in your example:

echo "ENTER  YOUR NUMBER";
$num = trim(fgets(STDIN));
echo "Enter your message";
$msg = trim(fgets(STDIN));
echo $num;
echo $msg;

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