13.16 Command-Line PHP

PHP isn't just for web applications. Your PHP installation can include a CLI (Command-Line Interface) version of the PHP interpreter that lets you run PHP scripts as standalone programs. This can be useful for running a PHP program at certain times of day or just reusing code that you wrote for a web application in a different context.

Read about the CLI version of the PHP interpreter in Section 1.4.5 of O'Reilly's Programming PHP, PHP Cookbook (O'Reilly), Section 20.0 and Recipes 20.1-20.4; and the PHP Manual (http://www.php.net/features.commandline). The PEAR installation instructions in Appendix A use the CLI version of the PHP interpreter.