How To Run PHP From Windows Command Line in WAMPSe

Question

I'm new to php and wanted to run php from command line. I have installed WAMP and set the "System Variables" to my php folder ( which is C:\wamp\bin\php\php5.4.3).

When i go to Run -> CMD -> Type php -a and hit enter, it says interactive mode enabled. But when I write echo 'Hi'; it shows nothing.

I even don't see anything like 'php >" when i type php -a and hit enter.

Answer 1

The problem you are describing sounds like your version of PHP might be missing the readline PHP module, causing the interactive shell to not work. I base this on this PHP bug submission.

Try running

php -m

And see if "readline" appears in the output.

There might be good reasons for omitting readline from the distribution. PHP is typically executed by a web server; so it is not really need for most use cases. I am sure you can execute PHP code in a file from the command prompt, using:

php file.php

There is also the phpsh project which provides a (better) interactive shell for PHP. However, some people have had trouble running it under Windows (I did not try this myself).

Edit: According to the documentation here, readline is not supported under Windows:

Note: This extension is not available on Windows platforms.

So, if that is correct, your options are:

• Avoid the interactive shell, and just execute PHP code in files from the command line - this should work well
• Try getting phpsh to work under Windows

Answer 2

Try using batch file

1. Open notepad
2. type php -S localhost:8000
3. save file as .bat extension, server.bat
4. now click on server.bat file your server is ready on http://localhost:8000

Dependency

if you got error php not recognize any internal or external command then goto environment variable and edit path to php.exe "C:\wamp\bin\php\php5.4.3"

Answer 3

I remember one time when I stumbled upon this issue a few years ago, it's because windows don't have readline, therefore no interactive shell, to use php interactive mode without readline support, you can do this instead:

C:\>php -a 
Interactive mode enabled 

<?php 
echo "Hello, world!"; 
?> 
^Z 
Hello, world!

After entering interactive mode, type using opening (<?php) and closing (?>) php tag, and end with control Z (^Z) which denotes the end of file.

I also recall that I found the solution from php's site user comment: http://www.php.net/manual/en/features.commandline.interactive.php#105729

Answer 4

That is because you are in 'Interactive Mode' where php evaluates everything you type. To see the end result, you do 'ctrl+z' and Enter. You should see the evaluated result now :)

p.s. run the cmd as Administrator!

Answer 5

In windows, put your php.exe file in windows/system32 or any other system executable folders and then go to command line and type php and hit enter following it, if it doesnt generate any error then you are ready to use PHP on command line. If you have set your php.exe somewhere else than default system folders then you need to set the path of it in the environment variables! You can get there in following path....

control panel -> System -> Edith the environment variables of your account -> Environment Vaiables -> path -> edit then set the absolute path of your php.exe there and follow the same procedure as in first paragraph, if nothing in the error department, then you are ready to use php from command line!

Answer 6

The following solution is specifically for wamp environments:

This foxed me for a little while, tried all the other suggestions, $PATH etc even searched the windows registry looking for clues:

The GUI (wampmanager) indicates I have version 7 selected and yes if I phpinfo() in a page in the browser it will tell me its version 7.x.x yet php -v in the command prompt reports a 5.x.x

If you right click on the wampmanager head to icon->tools->delete unused versions and remove the old version, let it restart the services then the command prompt will return a 7.x.x

This solution means you no longer have the old version if you want to switch between php versions but there is a configuration file in C:\wamp64\wampmanager.conf which appears to specify the version to use with CLI (the parameter is called phpCliVersion). I changed it, restarted the server ... thought I had solved it but no effect perhaps I was a little impatient so I have a feeling there may be some mileage in that.

Hope that helps someone