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</div><hr /><div id="features.commandline.options" class="section">
<h2 class="title">Command line options</h2>
<p class="para">
The list of command line options provided by the PHP binary can be queried
at any time by running PHP with the <strong class="option unknown">-h</strong>
switch:
<div class="example-contents screen">
<div class="cdata"><pre>
Usage: 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
-a Run interactively
-c <path>|<file> Look for php.ini file in this directory
-n No php.ini file will be used
-d foo[=bar] Define INI entry foo with value 'bar'
-e Generate extended information for debugger/profiler
-f <file> Parse and execute <file>.
-h This help
-i PHP information
-l Syntax check only (lint)
-m Show compiled in modules
-r <code> Run PHP <code> without using script tags <?..?>
-B <begin_code> Run PHP <begin_code> before processing input lines
-R <code> Run PHP <code> for every input line
-F <file> Parse and execute <file> for every input line
-E <end_code> Run PHP <end_code> after processing all input lines
-H Hide any passed arguments from external tools.
-S <addr>:<port> Run with built-in web server.
-t <docroot> Specify document root <docroot> for built-in web server.
-s Output HTML syntax highlighted source.
-v Version number
-w Output source with stripped comments and whitespace.
-z <file> Load Zend extension <file>.
args... Arguments passed to script. Use -- args when first argument
starts with - or script is read from stdin
--ini Show configuration file names
--rf <name> Show information about function <name>.
--rc <name> Show information about class <name>.
--re <name> Show information about extension <name>.
--rz <name> Show information about Zend extension <name>.
--ri <name> Show configuration for extension <name>.
</pre></div>
</div>
</p>
<p class="para">
<table class="doctable table">
<caption><strong>Command line options</strong></caption>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Option</th>
<th>Long Option</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody class="tbody">
<tr>
<td>-a</td>
<td>--interactive</td>
<td>
<p class="para">
Run PHP interactively. For more information, see the <a href="features.commandline.interactive.html" class="link">Interactive shell</a>
section.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>-b</td>
<td>--bindpath</td>
<td>
<p class="para">
Bind Path for external FASTCGI Server mode (<acronym title="Common Gateway Interface">CGI</acronym>
only).
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>-C</td>
<td>--no-chdir</td>
<td>
<p class="para">
Do not chdir to the script's directory (<acronym title="Common Gateway Interface">CGI</acronym> only).
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>-q</td>
<td>--no-header</td>
<td>
<p class="para">
Quiet-mode. Suppress <acronym title="Hypertext Transfer Protocol">HTTP</acronym> header output
(<acronym title="Common Gateway Interface">CGI</acronym> only).
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>-T</td>
<td>--timing</td>
<td>
<p class="para">
Measure execution time of script repeated <var class="varname"><var class="varname">count</var></var>
times (<acronym title="Common Gateway Interface">CGI</acronym> only).
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>-c</td>
<td>--php-ini</td>
<td>
<p class="para">
Specifies either a directory in which to look for
<var class="filename">php.ini</var>, or a custom <em>INI</em> file
(which does not need to be named <var class="filename">php.ini</var>), e.g.:
</p>
<p class="para"><div class="informalexample">
<div class="example-contents screen">
<div class="cdata"><pre>
$ php -c /custom/directory/ my_script.php
$ php -c /custom/directory/custom-file.ini my_script.php
</pre></div>
</div>
</div></p>
<p class="para">
If this option is not specified, <var class="filename">php.ini</var> is searched for in the
<a href="configuration.file.html" class="link">default locations</a>.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>-n</td>
<td>--no-php-ini</td>
<td>
<p class="para">
Ignore <var class="filename">php.ini</var> completely.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>-d</td>
<td>--define</td>
<td>
<p class="para">
Set a custom value for any of the configuration
directives allowed in <var class="filename">php.ini</var>. The syntax is:
<div class="example-contents screen">
<div class="cdata"><pre>
-d configuration_directive[=value]
</pre></div>
</div>
</p>
<p class="para"><div class="example" id="example-364">
<div class="example-contents screen">
<div class="cdata"><pre>
# 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"
</pre></div>
</div>
</div></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>-e</td>
<td>--profile-info</td>
<td>
<p class="para">
Activate the extended information mode, to be used by a
debugger/profiler.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>-f</td>
<td>--file</td>
<td>
<p class="para">
Parse and execute the specified file. The
<strong class="option unknown">-f</strong>
is optional and may be omitted - providing just
the filename to execute is sufficient.
</p>
<blockquote class="note"><p><strong class="note">Note</strong>:
<p class="para">
To pass arguments to a script, the first argument must be
<em>--</em>, otherwise PHP will interpret them as PHP
options.
</p>
</p></blockquote>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>-h and -?</td>
<td>--help and --usage</td>
<td>
Output a list of
command line options with one line descriptions of what they do.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>-i</td>
<td>--info</td>
<td>
Calls <span class="function"><a href="function.phpinfo.html" class="function">phpinfo()</a></span>, and prints out the results.
If PHP is not working correctly, it is advisable to use the command
<strong class="command">php -i</strong> and see whether any error
messages are printed out before or in place of the information tables.
Beware that when using the <acronym title="Common Gateway Interface">CGI</acronym> mode the output is in
<acronym title="Hyper Text Markup Language">HTML</acronym> and therefore very large.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>-l</td>
<td>--syntax-check</td>
<td>
<p class="para">
Provides a convenient way to perform only a syntax check
on the given PHP code. On success, the text
<em>No syntax errors detected in <filename></em> is
written to standard output and the shell return code is
<em>0</em>. On failure, the text <em>Errors parsing
<filename></em> in addition to the internal parser error
message is written to standard output and the shell return code is set
to <em>-1</em>.
</p>
<p class="para">
This option won't find fatal errors (like undefined functions). Use
the <strong class="option unknown">-f</strong>
to test for fatal errors too.
</p>
<blockquote class="note"><p><strong class="note">Note</strong>:
<p class="para">
This option does not work together with the <strong class="option unknown">-r</strong>
option.
</p>
</p></blockquote>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>-m</td>
<td>--modules</td>
<td>
<p class="para"><div class="example" id="example-365">
<p><strong>Example #1 Printing built in (and loaded) PHP and Zend modules</strong></p>
<div class="example-contents screen">
<div class="cdata"><pre>
$ php -m
[PHP Modules]
xml
tokenizer
standard
session
posix
pcre
overload
mysql
mbstring
ctype
[Zend Modules]
</pre></div>
</div>
</div></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>-r</td>
<td>--run</td>
<td>
<p class="para">
Allows execution of PHP included directly on the command line.
The PHP start and end tags (<em><?php</em> and
<em>?></em>) are <em class="emphasis">not
needed</em> and will cause a parse error if present.
</p>
<blockquote class="note"><p><strong class="note">Note</strong>:
<p class="para">
Care must be taken when using this form of PHP not
to collide with command line variable substitution done by the
shell.
</p>
<div class="example" id="example-366">
<p><strong>Example #2 Getting a syntax error when using double quotes</strong></p>
<div class="example-contents screen">
<div class="cdata"><pre>
$ php -r "$foo = get_defined_constants();"
PHP Parse error: syntax error, unexpected '=' in Command line code on line 1
Parse error: syntax error, unexpected '=' in Command line code on line 1
</pre></div>
</div>
</div>
<p class="para">
The problem here is that sh/bash performs variable substitution
even when using double quotes <em>"</em>. Since the
variable <var class="varname"><var class="varname">$foo</var></var> is unlikely to be defined, it
expands to nothing which results in the code passed to
PHP for execution actually reading:
</p>
<div class="informalexample">
<div class="example-contents screen">
<div class="cdata"><pre>
$ php -r " = get_defined_constants();"
</pre></div>
</div>
</div>
<p class="para">
The correct way would be to use single quotes <em>'</em>.
Variables in single-quoted strings are not expanded
by sh/bash.
</p>
<div class="example" id="example-367">
<p><strong>Example #3 Using single quotes to prevent the shell's variable
substitution</strong></p>
<div class="example-contents screen">
<div class="cdata"><pre>
$ 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"]=>
[...]
</pre></div>
</div>
</div>
<p class="para">
If using a shell other than sh/bash, further issues might be
experienced - if appropriate, a bug report should be opened at
<a href="http://bugs.php.net/" class="link external">» http://bugs.php.net/</a>.
It is still easy to run into trouble when trying to use variables
(shell or PHP) in commnad-line code, or using backslashes for
escaping, so take great care when doing so. You have been warned!
</p>
</p></blockquote>
<blockquote class="note"><p><strong class="note">Note</strong>:
<p class="para">
<strong class="option unknown">-r</strong>
is available in the <acronym title="Command Line Interpreter/Interface">CLI</acronym> <acronym title="Server Application Programming Interface">SAPI</acronym>, but not in the
<em class="emphasis">CGI</em> <acronym title="Server Application Programming Interface">SAPI</acronym>.
</p>
</p></blockquote>
<blockquote class="note"><p><strong class="note">Note</strong>:
<p class="para">
This option is only intended for very basic code, so some
configuration directives (such as <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 ignored
in this mode.
</p>
</p></blockquote>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>-B</td>
<td>--process-begin</td>
<td>
<p class="para">
PHP code to execute before processing stdin. Added in PHP 5.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>-R</td>
<td>--process-code</td>
<td>
<p class="para">
PHP code to execute for every input line. Added in PHP 5.
</p>
<p class="para">
There are two special variables available in this mode:
<var class="varname"><var class="varname">$argn</var></var> and <var class="varname"><var class="varname">$argi</var></var>.
<var class="varname"><var class="varname">$argn</var></var> will contain the line PHP is processing at
that moment, while <var class="varname"><var class="varname">$argi</var></var> will contain the line
number.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>-F</td>
<td>--process-file</td>
<td>
<p class="para">
PHP file to execute for every input line. Added in PHP 5.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>-E</td>
<td>--process-end</td>
<td>
<p class="para">
PHP code to execute after processing the input. Added in PHP 5.
</p>
<p class="para"><div class="example" id="example-368">
<p><strong>Example #4 Using the <strong class="option unknown">-B</strong>
, <strong class="option unknown">-R</strong>
and
<strong class="option unknown">-E</strong>
options to count the number of lines of a
project.
</strong></p>
<div class="example-contents screen">
<div class="cdata"><pre>
$ find my_proj | php -B '$l=0;' -R '$l += count(@file($argn));' -E 'echo "Total Lines: $l\n";'
Total Lines: 37328
</pre></div>
</div>
</div></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>-S</td>
<td>--server</td>
<td>
<p class="para">
Starts <a href="features.commandline.webserver.html" class="link">built-in web
server</a>. Available as of PHP 5.4.0.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>-t</td>
<td>--docroot</td>
<td>
Specifies document root for <a href="features.commandline.webserver.html" class="link">built-in web server</a>.
Available as of PHP 5.4.0.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>-s</td>
<td>--syntax-highlight and --syntax-highlighting</td>
<td>
<p class="para">
Display colour syntax highlighted source.
</p>
<p class="para">
This option uses the internal mechanism to parse the file and writes
an HTML highlighted version of it to
standard output. Note that all it does is generate a block of
<em><code> [...] </code></em>
HTML tags, no HTML headers.
</p>
<blockquote class="note"><p><strong class="note">Note</strong>:
<p class="para">
This option does not work together with the <strong class="option unknown">-r</strong>
option.
</p>
</p></blockquote>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>-v</td>
<td>--version</td>
<td>
<p class="para"><div class="example" id="example-369">
<p><strong>Example #5 Using <strong class="option unknown">-v</strong>
to get the <acronym title="Server Application Programming Interface">SAPI</acronym>
name and the version of PHP and Zend</strong></p>
<div class="example-contents screen">
<div class="cdata"><pre>
$ php -v
PHP 5.3.1 (cli) (built: Dec 11 2009 19:55:07)
Copyright (c) 1997-2009 The PHP Group
Zend Engine v2.3.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2009 Zend Technologies
</pre></div>
</div>
</div></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>-w</td>
<td>--strip</td>
<td>
<p class="para">
Display source with comments and whitespace stripped.
</p>
<blockquote class="note"><p><strong class="note">Note</strong>:
<p class="para">
This option does not work together with the <strong class="option unknown">-r</strong>
option.
</p>
</p></blockquote>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>-z</td>
<td>--zend-extension</td>
<td>
<p class="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 <var class="filename">/etc/ld.so.conf</var> on Linux systems, for
example). Passing a filename with an absolute path will
not use the system's library search path. A relative filename including
directory information will tell PHP to try
loading the extension relative to the current directory.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="empty"> </td>
<td>--ini</td>
<td>
<p class="para">
Show configuration file names and scanned directories. Available as
of PHP 5.2.3.
<div class="example" id="example-370">
<p><strong>Example #6 <em>--ini</em> example</strong></p>
<div class="example-contents">
<div class="shellcode"><pre class="shellcode">$ php --ini
Configuration File (php.ini) Path: /usr/dev/php/5.2/lib
Loaded Configuration File: /usr/dev/php/5.2/lib/php.ini
Scan for additional .ini files in: (none)
Additional .ini files parsed: (none)</pre>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>--rf</td>
<td>--rfunction</td>
<td>
<p class="para">
Show information about the given function or class method (e.g.
number and name of the parameters). Available as of PHP 5.1.2.
</p>
<p class="para">
This option is only available if PHP was compiled with
<a href="book.reflection.html" class="link">Reflection</a> support.
</p>
<p class="para">
<div class="example" id="example-371">
<p><strong>Example #7 basic <em>--rf</em> usage</strong></p>
<div class="example-contents">
<div class="shellcode"><pre class="shellcode">$ php --rf var_dump
Function [ <internal> public function var_dump ] {
- Parameters [2] {
Parameter #0 [ <required> $var ]
Parameter #1 [ <optional> $... ]
}
}</pre>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>--rc</td>
<td>--rclass</td>
<td>
<p class="para">
Show information about the given class (list of constants, properties
and methods). Available as of PHP 5.1.2.
</p>
<p class="para">
This option is only available if PHP was compiled with
<a href="book.reflection.html" class="link">Reflection</a> support.
</p>
<p class="para">
<div class="example" id="example-372">
<p><strong>Example #8 <em>--rc</em> example</strong></p>
<div class="example-contents">
<div class="shellcode"><pre class="shellcode">$ php --rc Directory
Class [ <internal:standard> class Directory ] {
- Constants [0] {
}
- Static properties [0] {
}
- Static methods [0] {
}
- Properties [0] {
}
- Methods [3] {
Method [ <internal> public method close ] {
}
Method [ <internal> public method rewind ] {
}
Method [ <internal> public method read ] {
}
}
}</pre>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>--re</td>
<td>--rextension</td>
<td>
<p class="para">
Show information about the given extension (list of <var class="filename">php.ini</var> options,
defined functions, constants and classes). Available as of PHP 5.1.2.
</p>
<p class="para">
This option is only available if PHP was compiled with
<a href="book.reflection.html" class="link">Reflection</a> support.
</p>
<p class="para">
<div class="example" id="example-373">
<p><strong>Example #9 <em>--re</em> example</strong></p>
<div class="example-contents">
<div class="shellcode"><pre class="shellcode">$ php --re json
Extension [ <persistent> extension #19 json version 1.2.1 ] {
- Functions {
Function [ <internal> function json_encode ] {
}
Function [ <internal> function json_decode ] {
}
}
}</pre>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>--rz</td>
<td>--rzendextension</td>
<td>
<p class="para">
Show the configuration information for the given Zend extension (the
same information that is returned by <span class="function"><a href="function.phpinfo.html" class="function">phpinfo()</a></span>).
Available as of PHP 5.4.0.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>--ri</td>
<td>--rextinfo</td>
<td>
<p class="para">
Show the configuration information for the given extension (the same
information that is returned by <span class="function"><a href="function.phpinfo.html" class="function">phpinfo()</a></span>).
Available as of PHP 5.2.2. The core configuration information
is available using "main" as extension name.
</p>
<p class="para">
<div class="example" id="example-374">
<p><strong>Example #10 <em>--ri</em> example</strong></p>
<div class="example-contents">
<div class="shellcode"><pre class="shellcode">$ php --ri date
date
date/time support => enabled
"Olson" Timezone Database Version => 2009.20
Timezone Database => internal
Default timezone => Europe/Oslo
Directive => Local Value => Master Value
date.timezone => Europe/Oslo => Europe/Oslo
date.default_latitude => 59.930972 => 59.930972
date.default_longitude => 10.776699 => 10.776699
date.sunset_zenith => 90.583333 => 90.583333
date.sunrise_zenith => 90.583333 => 90.583333</pre>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</p>
<blockquote class="note"><p><strong class="note">Note</strong>:
<p class="para">
Options <em>-rBRFEH</em>, <em>--ini</em> and
<em>--r[fcezi]</em> are available only in <acronym title="Command Line Interpreter/Interface">CLI</acronym>.
</p>
</p></blockquote>
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