As of PHP 5.4.0, the CLI SAPI provides a built-in web server.
This web server is designed for developmental purposes only, and should not be used in production.
URI requests are served from the current working directory where PHP was started, unless the -t option is used to specify an explicit document root.
If a URI request does not specify a file, then either index.php or index.html in the given directory are returned. If neither file exists, then a 404 response code is returned.
If a PHP file is given on the command line when the web server is
started it is treated as a "router" script for the web server.
The script is run at the start of each HTTP request. If this
script returns FALSE, then the requested resource is returned
as-is. Otherwise the script's output is returned to the browser.
Example #1 Starting the web server
$ cd ~/public_html $ php -S localhost:8000
The terminal will show:
PHP 5.4.0 Development Server started at Thu Jul 21 10:43:28 2011 Listening on localhost:8000 Document root is /home/me/public_html Press Ctrl-C to quit
After URI requests for http://localhost:8000/ and http://localhost:8000/myscript.html the terminal will show something similar to:
PHP 5.4.0 Development Server started at Thu Jul 21 10:43:28 2011 Listening on localhost:8000 Document root is /home/me/public_html Press Ctrl-C to quit. [Thu Jul 21 10:48:48 2011] ::1:39144 GET /favicon.ico - Request read [Thu Jul 21 10:48:50 2011] ::1:39146 GET / - Request read [Thu Jul 21 10:48:50 2011] ::1:39147 GET /favicon.ico - Request read [Thu Jul 21 10:48:52 2011] ::1:39148 GET /myscript.html - Request read [Thu Jul 21 10:48:52 2011] ::1:39149 GET /favicon.ico - Request read
Example #2 Starting with a specific document root directory
$ cd ~/public_html $ php -S localhost:8000 -t foo/
The terminal will show:
PHP 5.4.0 Development Server started at Thu Jul 21 10:50:26 2011 Listening on localhost:8000 Document root is /home/me/public_html/foo Press Ctrl-C to quit
Example #3 Using a Router Script
Requests for images will display them, but requests for HTML files will display "Welcome to PHP"
<?php
// router.php
if (preg_match('/\.(?:png|jpg|jpeg|gif)$/', $_SERVER["REQUEST_URI"]))
return false; // serve the requested resource as-is.
else {
echo "<p>Welcome to PHP</p>";
}
?>
$ php -S localhost:8000 router.php
After several URI requests the terminal will show something similar to:
PHP 5.4.0 Development Server started at Thu Jul 21 10:53:19 2011 Listening on localhost:8000 Document root is /home/me/public_html Press Ctrl-C to quit. [Thu Jul 21 10:53:45 2011] ::1:55801 GET /mylogo.jpg - Request read [Thu Jul 21 10:53:52 2011] ::1:55803 GET /abc.html - Request read [Thu Jul 21 10:53:52 2011] ::1:55804 GET /favicon.ico - Request read
dstrout at dstrout dot net (2013-04-17 17:16:26)
Just gave it a try, and it is IPv6 compatible, if anyone was wondering.
matthewkastor at gmail dot com (2012-09-16 19:43:05)
Updated Autoindex router for PHP built in server
<?php
/**
* Rev. 2 Autoindex Router for PHP built in webserver
* Fixes error where given http://localhost/? and localhost
* only contains index.html, the router redirects endlessly.
*/
function atropa_router() {
function add_single_trailing_fslash($to) {
if(!$to) return '/';
if(substr($to, -1) !== '/') {
$to = $to . '/';
}
return $to;
}
function get_request_uri_path() {
$p = parse_url($_SERVER["REQUEST_URI"], PHP_URL_PATH);
if( is_null($p) ) {
$req = '/';
} else {
$req = $p;
}
return $req;
}
function get_absolute_path_to_request() {
return $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . get_request_uri_path();
}
function path_has_filename($req) {
$req = pathinfo($req, PATHINFO_BASENAME);
if($req) {
return true;
} else {
return false;
}
}
function web_index_exists($dir) {
if(is_file($dir . "index.php") ) {
return true;
} else {
return false;
}
}
function process_request() {
$req = get_absolute_path_to_request();
if(path_has_filename($req)) {
if (is_file($req)) {
if(!file_handler($req)) {
return false; // serve the requested resource as-is.
}
}
}
if(is_dir($req)) {
$req = add_single_trailing_fslash($req);
if (web_index_exists($req)) {
return false;
} elseif ( is_file($req . "index.html")) {
$loc = get_request_uri_path();
$loc = add_single_trailing_fslash($loc);
header('Location: ' . $loc . 'index.html');
exit;
} else {
directory_handler($req);
}
} else {
not_found_handler($req);
}
}
if(process_request() === false) {
return false;
}
}
function file_handler($req) {
return false;
}
function directory_handler($req) {
$d = dir($req);
$p = get_request_uri_path();
$p = add_single_trailing_fslash($p);
echo '<!Doctype html><html><head><title>Directory</title></head><body>';
echo "Location: $d->path <br>";
echo '<table><tr><th>Name</th><th>Type</th></tr>';
while (false !== ($entry = $d->read())) {
if($entry === '.') continue;
$href = $p . $entry;
if(is_file($req . $entry)) {
$type = 'File';
} else {
$href = add_single_trailing_fslash($href);
$type = 'Directory';
}
echo "<tr><td><a href='$href'>$entry</a></td><td>$type</td></tr>";
}
$d->close();
echo '</table></body></html>';
}
function not_found_handler($req) {
header('HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found');
echo '<!Doctype html><html><head><title>404</title></head><body><p>Requested resource could not be found</p></body></html>';
}
return atropa_router();
?>
matthewkastor at gmail dot com (2012-09-16 00:58:26)
The commandline webserver kept giving me 404's when I would request a directory. It would only automatically find index.php. Since I wanted links to subdirectories and index.html to be processed automatically, I made a router that does it. I left three handlers dangling out there to make it easy to process files, directories, or 404's. I was thinking this might be useful and that someone else might not like the way my auto index looks, so I tried to make this code easy to alter.
<?php
function atropa_router() {
function add_single_trailing_fslash($to) {
if(!$to) return '/';
if(substr($to, -1) !== '/') {
$to = $to . '/';
}
return $to;
}
function get_absolute_path_to_request() {
$p = parse_url($_SERVER["REQUEST_URI"], PHP_URL_PATH);
if( is_null($p) ) {
$req = $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'];
} else {
$req = $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . $p;
}
return $req;
}
function path_has_filename($req) {
$req = pathinfo($req, PATHINFO_BASENAME);
if($req) {
return true;
} else {
return false;
}
}
function web_index_exists($dir) {
if(is_file($dir . "/index.php") ) {
return true;
} else {
return false;
}
}
function process_request() {
$req = get_absolute_path_to_request();
if(path_has_filename($req)) {
if (is_file($req)) {
if(!file_handler($req)) {
return false; // serve the requested resource as-is.
}
}
}
if(is_dir($req)) {
if (web_index_exists($req)) {
return false;
} elseif ( is_file($req . "/index.html")) {
$loc = add_single_trailing_fslash($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']);
header('Location: ' . $loc . 'index.html');
exit;
} else {
directory_handler($req);
}
} else {
not_found_handler($req);
}
}
if(process_request() === false) {
return false;
}
}
function file_handler($req) {
return false;
}
function directory_handler($req) {
$d = dir($req);
$p = parse_url($_SERVER["REQUEST_URI"], PHP_URL_PATH);
$separator = '/';
$p = add_single_trailing_fslash($p);
echo '<!Doctype html><html><head><title>Directory</title></head><body>';
echo "Location: " . $d->path . '<br>';
echo '<table><tr><th>Name</th><th>Type</th></tr>';
while (false !== ($entry = $d->read())) {
if($entry === '.') continue;
if(is_file($req . '/' . $entry)) {
$separator = '';
$type = 'File';
} else {
$separator = '/';
$type = 'Directory';
}
echo '<tr><td><a href="' . $p . $entry . $separator . '">' . $entry . '</a></td><td>' . $type . '</td></tr>';
}
$d->close();
echo '</table></body></html>';
}
function not_found_handler($req) {
header('HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found');
echo '<!Doctype html><html><head><title>404</title></head><body><p>Requested resource could not be found</p></body></html>';
}
return atropa_router();
?>
zealotous at gmail dot com (2012-07-16 07:38:51)
There no problem to configure xdebug with php 5.4 built-in server.
If you debugging on local (dev) machine you need to :
1) add to php.ini:
zend_extention=/abosute/path/to/xdebug.dll
# USE ABSOLUTE PATH!!! relative path does not work.
#http://xdebug.org/docs/install
xdebug.remote_enable=1
2) run php from command line:
php.exe -S localhost:3000
3) check if xdebug loaded:
#index.php
<?php phpinfo(); ?>
4) configure NetBeans, Eclipse to work with localhost:3000
Notes: latest release of NetBeans 7.1,(7.2RC) (date july 2012)
seems to be unstable when working with build-in webserver and xdebug, but Eclipse PDT works fine.
Miguel Juan Semanino (2012-06-04 14:24:51)
Note: as of PHP 5.4.3 on Windows, $_ENV is an empty array for all incoming requests.
Stefano F. Rausch (2012-03-09 00:25:28)
To develop / deploy websites in 3 stages, i.e. ( 1 ) locally, ( 2 ) with an access controlled dedicated beta / test website in the www and ( 3 ) the production site, you can have ( 1 ) & ( 2 ) using the same domain name - port free - as follows:
- look up the IP address of the beta.web.site
and edit the hosts file to reflect:
- <IP> beta.web.site
- 127.0.0.1 beta.web.site
Start the built-in web server to work locally with:
- sudo php -S beta.web.site:80
and just hit http://beta.web.site as usual. Switching back and forth between ( 1 ) and ( 2 ) is as easy as telling the php engine not to fake a server any more :) Nice!
Happy PHP'ing.