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<title>Interactive shell</title>
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</div><hr /><div id="features.commandline.interactive" class="section">
<h2 class="title">Interactive shell</h2>
<p class="para">
As of PHP 5.1.0, the <acronym title="Command Line Interpreter/Interface">CLI</acronym> <acronym title="Server Application Programming Interface">SAPI</acronym> provides an interactive shell using the
<strong class="option unknown">-a</strong>
option if PHP is compiled with the <strong class="option configure">--with-readline</strong>
option.
</p>
<p class="para">
Using the interactive shell you are able to type PHP code and have it
executed directly.
</p>
<div class="example" id="example-378">
<p><strong>Example #1 Executing code using the interactive shell</strong></p>
<div class="example-contents">
<div class="shellcode"><pre class="shellcode">$ php -a
Interactive shell
php > echo 5+8;
13
php > function addTwo($n)
php > {
php { return $n + 2;
php { }
php > var_dump(addtwo(2));
int(4)
php ></pre>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p class="para">
The interactive shell also features tab completion for functions,
constants, class names, variables, static method calls and class
constants.
</p>
<div class="example" id="example-379">
<p><strong>Example #2 Tab completion</strong></p>
<div class="example-contents"><p>
Pressing the tab key twice when there are multiple possible completions
will result in a list of these completions:
</p></div>
<div class="example-contents">
<div class="shellcode"><pre class="shellcode">php > strp[TAB][TAB]
strpbrk strpos strptime
php > strp</pre>
</div>
</div>
<div class="example-contents"><p>
When there is only one possible completion, pressing tab once will
complete the rest on the same line:
</p></div>
<div class="example-contents">
<div class="shellcode"><pre class="shellcode">php > strpt[TAB]ime(</pre>
</div>
</div>
<div class="example-contents"><p>
Completion will also work for names that have been defined
during the current interactive shell session:
</p></div>
<div class="example-contents">
<div class="shellcode"><pre class="shellcode">php > $fooThisIsAReallyLongVariableName = 42;
php > $foo[TAB]ThisIsAReallyLongVariableName</pre>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p class="para">
The interactive shell stores your history which can be accessed using the up
and down keys. The history is saved in the
<var class="filename">~/.php_history</var> file.
</p>
<p class="para">
As of PHP 5.4.0, the <acronym title="Command Line Interpreter/Interface">CLI</acronym> <acronym title="Server Application Programming Interface">SAPI</acronym> provides
the <var class="filename">php.ini</var> settings <em><code class="parameter">cli.pager</code></em> and
<em><code class="parameter">cli.prompt</code></em>. The <em><code class="parameter">cli.pager</code></em>
setting allows an external program (such as <var class="filename">less</var>) to
act as a pager for the output instead of being displayed directly on the
screen. The <em><code class="parameter">cli.prompt</code></em> setting makes it possible to
change the <em>php ></em> prompt.
</p>
<p class="para">
In PHP 5.4.0 it was also made possible to set
<var class="filename">php.ini</var> settings in the interactive shell using a shorthand notation.
</p>
<div class="example" id="example-380">
<p><strong>Example #3 Setting <var class="filename">php.ini</var> settings in the interactive shell</strong></p>
<div class="example-contents"><p>
The <em><code class="parameter">cli.prompt</code></em> setting:
</p></div>
<div class="example-contents">
<div class="shellcode"><pre class="shellcode">php > #cli.prompt=hello world :>
hello world :></pre>
</div>
</div>
<div class="example-contents"><p>
Using backticks it is possible to have PHP code executed in the prompt:
</p></div>
<div class="example-contents">
<div class="shellcode"><pre class="shellcode">php > #cli.prompt=`echo date('H:i:s');` php >
15:49:35 php > echo 'hi';
hi
15:49:43 php > sleep(2);
15:49:45 php ></pre>
</div>
</div>
<div class="example-contents"><p>
Setting the pager to <var class="filename">less</var>:
</p></div>
<div class="example-contents">
<div class="shellcode"><pre class="shellcode">php > #cli.pager=less
php > phpinfo();
(output displayed in less)
php ></pre>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p class="para">
The <em><code class="parameter">cli.prompt</code></em> setting supports a few escape
sequences:
<table class="doctable table">
<caption><strong><em><code class="parameter">cli.prompt</code></em> escape sequences</strong></caption>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Sequence</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody class="tbody">
<tr>
<td><em>\e</em></td>
<td>
Used for adding colors to the prompt. An example could be
<em>\e[032m\v \e[031m\b \e[34m\> \e[0m</em>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><em>\v</em></td>
<td>The PHP version.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><em>\b</em></td>
<td>
Indicates which block PHP is in. For instance <em>/*</em> to
indicate being inside a multi-line comment. The outer scope is denoted by
<em>php</em>.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><em>\></em></td>
<td>
Indicates the prompt character. By default this is
<em>></em>, but changes when the shell is inside an
unterminated block or string. Possible characters are: <em>' " {
( ></em>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</p>
<blockquote class="note"><p><strong class="note">Note</strong>:
<p class="para">
Files included through <a href="ini.core.html#ini.auto-prepend-file" class="link">auto_prepend_file</a> and <a href="ini.core.html#ini.auto-append-file" class="link">auto_append_file</a> are parsed in
this mode but with some restrictions - e.g. functions have to be
defined before called.
</p>
</p></blockquote>
<blockquote class="note"><p><strong class="note">Note</strong>:
<p class="para">
<a href="language.oop5.autoload.html" class="link">Autoloading</a> is not
available if using PHP in <acronym title="Command Line Interpreter/Interface">CLI</acronym> interactive mode.
</p>
</p></blockquote>
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