PHP-CLI seems to parse JSON string from argument

Question

Using PHP 5.3 if I send a JSON encoded string as an arugment via command line...

/usr/local/bin/php -q /path/to/script.php {"key":"test","cache":1}

... and in script.php the code is:

<?php print_r($argv); ?>

I get back:

Array
(
    [0] => /path/to/script.php
    [1] => key:test
    [2] => cache:1
)

Which is completely unexpected!

Whilst I can live with this I'd like to know where this is documented by PHP so that I am 100% sure it will work like this if I pass a JSON encoded string as an argument every time.

Also arrays within the JSON string don't seem to work as expected.

Did you figure out how to parse Json from the command line parameter in PHP scripts? — TelKitty
– TelKitty, Commented May 23, 2013 at 17:44

KingCrunch · Accepted Answer · 2011-05-09 15:12:41Z

5

If want to use special characters in a cli argument, you should always encapse them in quotes

"{\"key\":\"test\",\"cache\":1}"

'{"key":"test","cache":1}'

answered May 9, 2011 at 15:12

KingCrunch

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2 Comments

fire Over a year ago

Yes I figured that, but it's interesting that PHP attempted to parse the string yet this feature doesn't seem to be well known.

KingCrunch Over a year ago

As you can read in your output its not parsed. On the command line you can define multiple arguments at once via list notation {a,b,c} (for example in mkdir -p path/to/{folderA,folderB}). The JSON-object looks similar and is therefore misinterpreted. As far as I know its not PHPs fault, but just the way CLI-calls "work".

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