Can PHP Run Without a Server?

PHP has a command-line interface (CLI) that can be used to run PHP scripts directly from the command line. This is commonly used for running scripts locally, for development, testing, or even for running scripts that perform tasks like managing files or processing data.

To run a PHP script from the command line, you’ll first need to ensure that PHP is installed on your computer. If PHP is installed, you can run a script by opening a terminal (or command prompt on Windows), navigating to the directory containing your script, and then entering php filename.php, where “filename.php” is the name of your PHP script.

Here are the steps:

Install PHP

First, you need to install PHP on your computer. If you’re using Linux, you can install it via the package manager for your distribution (like apt for Ubuntu or yum for CentOS). On Windows, you can download PHP from the official PHP website. On macOS, you can install PHP via Homebrew with brew install php.

Create a PHP Script

Create a PHP script using a text editor. Here’s a simple script that you could use for testing:

<?php
echo "Hello, World!";
?>

Save this in a file named hello.php.

Run the PHP Script

Open a terminal (or command prompt on Windows) and navigate to the directory containing your script. Then, run the script using the php command followed by the script name:

php hello.php

If everything is set up correctly, you should see “Hello, World!” printed in your terminal.

Remember, when running PHP scripts from the command line, any code within the script that requires a web server (like handling HTTP requests or responses) won’t work as expected. The PHP CLI SAPI (Server API) doesn’t have the superglobal variables like $_GET, $_POST, etc., which are specific to the web server environment.