Using PHP from the command line

You can easily parse command line arguments into the $_GET variable by using the parse_str() function.

<?php

parse_str(implode('&', array_slice($argv, 1)), $_GET);

?>

It behaves exactly like you'd expect with cgi-php.

$ php -f somefile.php a=1 b[]=2 b[]=3

This will set $_GET['a'] to '1' and $_GET['b'] to array('2', '3').

Even better, instead of putting that line in every file, take advantage of PHP's auto_prepend_file directive.  Put that line in its own file and set the auto_prepend_file directive in your cli-specific php.ini like so:

auto_prepend_file = "/etc/php/cli-php5.3/local.prepend.php"

It will be automatically prepended to any PHP file run from the command line.

use " instead of ' on windows when using the cli version with -r

php -r "echo 1" 
-- correct

php -r 'echo 1'
  PHP Parse error:  syntax error, unexpected ''echo' (T_ENCAPSED_AND_WHITESPACE), expecting end of file in Command line code on line 1

Adding a pause() function to PHP waiting for any user input returning it:

<?php
function pause() {
    $handle = fopen ("php://stdin","r");
    do { $line = fgets($handle); } while ($line == '');
    fclose($handle);
    return $line;
}
?>

If you edit a php file in windows, upload and run it on linux with command line method. You may encounter a running problem probably like that:

[root@ItsCloud02 wsdl]# ./lnxcli.php
Extension './lnxcli.php' not present.

Or you may encounter some other strange problem.
Care the enter key. In windows environment, enter key generate two binary characters '0D0A'. But in Linux, enter key generate just only a 'OA'.
I wish it can help someone if you are using windows to code php and run it as a command line program on linux.

Parsing commandline argument GET String without changing the PHP script (linux shell):
URL: index.php?a=1&b=2
Result: output.html

echo "" | php -R 'include("index.php");' -B 'parse_str($argv[1], $_GET);' 'a=1&b=2' >output.html

(no need to change php.ini)

You can put this 
  echo "" | php -R 'include("'$1'");' -B 'parse_str($argv[1], $_GET);' "$2"
in a bash script "php_get" to use it like this:
  php_get index.php 'a=1&b=2' >output.html
or directed to text browser...
  php_get index.php 'a=1&b=2' |w3m -T text/html

When you're writing one line php scripts remember that 'php://stdin' is your friend. Here's a simple program I use to format PHP code for inclusion on my blog:

UNIX:
  cat test.php | php -r "print htmlentities(file_get_contents('php://stdin'));"

DOS/Windows:
  type test.php | php -r "print htmlentities(file_get_contents('php://stdin'));"