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Reference
CLI
ephpm php

ephpm php

Run the embedded PHP CLI. All arguments after php are passed straight through to the embedded interpreter — no shell wrapping, no separate PHP install required.

Synopsis 

ephpm php [PHP_ARGS...]

Examples 

# Inline expression
ephpm php -r 'echo PHP_VERSION;'

# Run a script
ephpm php script.php

# Laravel
ephpm php artisan migrate
ephpm php artisan tinker

# WordPress (WP-CLI)
ephpm php wp-cli.phar plugin list
ephpm php wp-cli.phar user list

# Composer (also a phar)
ephpm php composer.phar install

# Print loaded modules
ephpm php -m

Why use ephpm php?

The embedded PHP interpreter is the same runtime that serves HTTP requests. Running CLI commands through ephpm php means:

  • One PHP version to install — the one baked into the binary
  • Same compiled-in extensions: bcmath, calendar, ctype, curl, dom, exif, fileinfo, filter, gd, hash, iconv, mbstring, mysqli, mysqlnd, openssl, pcntl, pcre, pdo, pdo_mysql, phar, posix, session, simplexml, sodium, tokenizer, xml, xmlreader, xmlwriter, zip, zlib
  • Same php.ini overrides as the server (from [php] ini_overrides in your config)
  • No drift between dev, CI, and production PHP versions

How it works

ephpm php invokes PHP’s CLI SAPI directly via FFI. It’s not a wrapper around an external php binary. The argument list is forwarded as-is, including -r, -d, file paths, and trailing application arguments.

Windows note

The first call extracts php8embed.dll from the binary into a temp directory before invoking PHP. The DLL is removed when the command exits. This is invisible — there’s nothing to install.

See also

ephpm serveephpm kv