PHP cli script does not output anything

php output command-line-interface
MirroredFate picture MirroredFate · Aug 15, 2014 · Viewed 16.2k times · Source

So I have a php script which I execute using the following command:

php -f my_script.php myArguments

The script is under version control using svn. I just updated it, pasted the command to run it into a terminal, and executed it. However, there is no output. Not a failure message, not it printing anything, nothing. It looks like it never starts. Kind of like the following:

me:/srv/scripts# php -f my_script.php myArguments
me:/srv/scripts#

Other scripts will run just fine.

It is difficult for me to come up with an SSCCE, as I can't really share the code that is causing this, and I haven't been able to replicate this behavior intentionally. I have, however, seen this twice now. If I save my changes, revert the file, and paste them back in, there is a strong chance it will run just fine.

However, I am concerned by not knowing what is causing this odd behavior. Is there a whitespace character or something that tells PHP not to start, or output anything?

Here is what I've tried after seeing this behavior:

  • Modifying the script so it is a simple echo 'hello'

  • Putting nonsense at the beginning of the script, so it is unparseable.

  • Pasting in code from a working script

  • Banging my head on a wall in frustration

  • Trying it in another terminal/putty ssh connection.

Here's where it gets interesting: It actually works in a different terminal. It does everything as expected.

So does anyone have any ideas what might be causing this, or things I should try in order to determine the problem?

EDIT:

The "different terminal" is still the terminal application, just a new one.

I have sufficient permissions to execute the file, but even if I didn't, it should spit out a message saying I don't.

I intentionally introduced syntax errors in hopes that I would get PHP to spit out a parse error. There was still no output.

Answer

Mike B picture Mike B · Aug 22, 2014

display_errors might be disabled before runtime. You can turn it on manually with the -d switch:

php -d display_errors=1 -f my_script.php myArguments

Related questions

No output from PHP interactive on Windows

I'm running php interactively from xampp (5.4.7) on my Win 7 machine and cannot get any output from the window. I searched around various solutions and nothing so far has worked. Here's a sample: C:\xampp>php -v PHP 5.4.7 (cli) (built: …

Read More
How to clear previously echoed items in PHP

In php, is there any way to clear/remove all previously echoed or printed items? For example: <?php echo 'a'; print 'b'; // some statement that removes all printed/echoed items echo 'c'; // the final output should be equal to …

Read More
Printing debug output to console in Codeception

Very thick question, but is there any way to print your own debug messages to the console in Codeception? I mean messages that have nothing to do with assertions, purely for debugging the tests themselves (e.g. like you would …

Read More