PHP in command line

Question

Using Python I can test my code in the terminal / command line by typing

python 
python> print "hello world"

I would like to do this with PHP too, but when typing:

php
echo "hello world";

it does not work.. Is this possible? what should I do? A quick search on the internet gives a lot of results that call an actual .php file to run. I only want to test a single sentence if possible, without creating files and stuff.

Answer 1

Try

php -a

which starts an interactive PHP shell. Be aware that this requires PHP to be built with --with-readline (which is not the case if you're using the bundeled PHP with Mac OS X e.g.).

Alternatively, if you don't require the interactivity of a separate shell, use

php -r 'print_r(get_defined_constants());'

to execute a PHP snippet (this doesn't require the readline support).

Answer 2

If you run php without the -a option, don't forget the <?php at the start

Answer 3

php -r "echo 'hello world';"