[php] Pass a variable to a PHP script running from the command line

I have a PHP file that is needed to be run from the command line (via crontab). I need to pass type=daily to the file, but I don't know how. I tried:

php myfile.php?type=daily

but this error was returned:

Could not open input file: myfile.php?type=daily

What can I do?

You could use what sep16 on php.net recommends:

<?php

parse_str(implode('&', array_slice($argv, 1)), $_GET);

?>

It behaves exactly like you'd expect with cgi-php.

$ php -f myfile.php type=daily a=1 b[]=2 b[]=3

will set $_GET['type'] to 'daily', $_GET['a'] to '1' and $_GET['b'] to array('2', '3').

These lines will convert the arguments of a CLI call like php myfile.php "type=daily&foo=bar" into the well known $_GET-array:

if (!empty($argv[1])) {
  parse_str($argv[1], $_GET);
}

Though it is rather messy to overwrite the global $_GET-array, it converts all your scripts quickly to accept CLI arguments.

See parse_str for details.

Parameters send by index like other applications:

php myfile.php type=daily

And then you can get them like this:

<?php
    if (count($argv) == 0) 
        exit;

    foreach ($argv as $arg)
        echo $arg;
?>

You can use the following code to both work with the command line and a web browser. Put this code above your PHP code. It creates a $_GET variable for each command line parameter.

In your code you only need to check for $_GET variables then, not worrying about if the script is called from the web browser or command line.

if(isset($argv))
    foreach ($argv as $arg) {
        $e=explode("=",$arg);
        if(count($e)==2)
            $_GET[$e[0]]=$e[1];
        else
            $_GET[$e[0]]=0;
    }

There are four main alternatives. Both have their quirks, but Method 4 has many advantages from my view.

./script is a shell script starting by #!/usr/bin/php

Method 1: $argv

./script hello wo8844rld
// $argv[0] = "script", $argv[1] = "hello", $argv[2] = "wo8844rld"

?? Using $argv, the parameter order is critical.

Method 2: getopt()

./script -p7 -e3
// getopt("p::")["p"] = "7", getopt("e::")["e"] = "3"

It's hard to use in conjunction of $argv, because:

?? The parsing of options will end at the first non-option found, anything that follows is discarded.

?? Only 26 parameters as the alphabet.

Method 3: Bash Global variable

P9="xptdr" ./script
// getenv("P9") = "xptdr"
// $_SERVER["P9"] = "xptdr"

Those variables can be used by other programs running in the same shell.

They are blown when the shell is closed, but not when the PHP program is terminated. We can set them permanent in file ~/.bashrc!

Method 4: STDIN pipe and stream_get_contents()

Some piping examples:

Feed a string:

./script <<< "hello wo8844rld"
// stream_get_contents(STDIN) = "hello wo8844rld"

Feed a string using bash echo:

echo "hello wo8844rld" | ./script
// explode(" ",stream_get_contents(STDIN)) ...

Feed a file content:

./script < ~/folder/Special_params.txt
// explode("\n",stream_get_contents(STDIN)) ...

Feed an array of values:

./script <<< '["array entry","lol"]'
// var_dump( json_decode(trim(stream_get_contents(STDIN))) );

Feed JSON content from a file:

echo params.json | ./script
// json_decode(stream_get_contents(STDIN)) ...

It might work similarly to fread() or fgets(), by reading the STDIN.

Bash-Scripting Guide

Using getopt() function we can also read a parameter from the command line just. Pass a value with the php running command:

php abc.php --name=xyz

File abc.php

$val = getopt(null, ["name:"]);
print_r($val); // Output: ['name' => 'xyz'];

I strongly recommend the use of getopt.

If you want help to print out for your options then take a look at GetOptionKit.

Just pass it as normal parameters and access it in PHP using the $argv array.

php myfile.php daily

and in myfile.php

$type = $argv[1];

Save this code in file myfile.php and run as php myfile.php type=daily

<?php
$a = $argv;
$b = array();
if (count($a) === 1) exit;
foreach ($a as $key => $arg) {
    if ($key > 0) {
        list($x,$y) = explode('=', $arg);
        $b["$x"] = $y;  
    }
}
?>

If you add var_dump($b); before the ?> tag, you will see that the array $b contains type => daily.

Just pass it as parameters as follows:

php test.php one two three

And inside file test.php:

<?php
    if(isset($argv))
    {
        foreach ($argv as $arg)
        {
            echo $arg;
            echo "\r\n";
        }
    }
?>

<?php
    if (count($argv) == 0)
        exit;

    foreach ($argv as $arg)
        echo $arg;
?>

This code should not be used. First of all, the CLI is called like:

/usr/bin/php phpscript.php

It will have one argv value which is the name of the script:

array(2) {
   [0]=>
   string(13) "phpscript.php"
}

This one will always execute since it will have one or two arguments passed.

if (isset($argv) && is_array($argv)) {
    $param = array();
    for ($x=1; $x<sizeof($argv);$x++) {
        $pattern = '#\/(.+)=(.+)#i';
        if (preg_match($pattern, $argv[$x])) {
            $key =  preg_replace($pattern, '$1', $argv[$x]);
            $val =  preg_replace($pattern, '$2', $argv[$x]);
            $_REQUEST[$key] = $val;
            $$key = $val;
        }
    }
}

I put parameters in $_REQUEST:

$_REQUEST[$key] = $val;

And it is also usable directly:

$$key=$val

Use it like this:

myFile.php /key=val