This web server was designed to aid application development. It may also be useful for testing purposes or for application demonstrations that are run in controlled environments. It is not intended to be a full-featured web server. It should not be used on a public network.
As of PHP 5.4.0, the CLI SAPI provides a built-in web server.
The web server runs a only one single-threaded process, so PHP applications will stall if a request is blocked.
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, the lookup for index.php and index.html will be continued in the parent directory and so on until one is found or the document root has been reached. If an index.php or index.html is found, it is returned and $_SERVER['PATH_INFO'] is set to the trailing part of the URI. Otherwise 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. 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.
Standard MIME types are returned for files with extensions: .3gp, .apk, .avi, .bmp, .css, .csv, .doc, .docx, .flac, .gif, .gz, .gzip, .htm, .html, .ics, .jpe, .jpeg, .jpg, .js, .kml, .kmz, .m4a, .mov, .mp3, .mp4, .mpeg, .mpg, .odp, .ods, .odt, .oga, .ogg, .ogv, .pdf, .pdf, .png, .pps, .pptx, .qt, .svg, .swf, .tar, .text, .tif, .txt, .wav, .webm, .wmv, .xls, .xlsx, .xml, .xsl, .xsd, and .zip.
| Version | Description |
|---|---|
| 5.5.12 | .xml, .xsl, and .xsd |
| 5.5.7 | .3gp, .apk, .avi, .bmp, .csv, .doc, .docx, .flac, .gz, .gzip, .ics, .kml, .kmz, .m4a, .mp3, .mp4, .mpg, .mpeg, .mov, .odp, .ods, .odt, .oga, .pdf, .pptx, .pps, .qt, .swf, .tar, .text, .tif, .wav, .wmv, .xls, .xlsx, and .zip |
| 5.5.5 | |
| 5.4.11 | .ogg, .ogv, and .webm |
| 5.4.4 | .htm and .svg |
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
In this example, 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
Example #4 Checking for CLI Web Server Use
To reuse a framework router script during development with the CLI web server and later also with a production web server:
<?php
// router.php
if (php_sapi_name() == 'cli-server') {
/* route static assets and return false */
}
/* go on with normal index.php operations */
?>
$ php -S localhost:8000 router.php
Example #5 Handling Unsupported File Types
If you need to serve a static resource whose MIME type is not handled by the CLI web server, use:
<?php
// router.php
$path = pathinfo($_SERVER["SCRIPT_FILENAME"]);
if ($path["extension"] == "el") {
header("Content-Type: text/x-script.elisp");
readfile($_SERVER["SCRIPT_FILENAME"]);
}
else {
return FALSE;
}
?>
$ php -S localhost:8000 router.php
Example #6 Accessing the CLI Web Server From Remote Machines
You can make the web server accessible on port 8000 to any interface with:
$ php -S 0.0.0.0:8000
In order to set project specific configuration options, simply add a php.ini file to your project, and then run the built-in server with this flag:
php -S localhost:8000 -c php.ini
This is especially helpful for settings that cannot be set at runtime (ini_set()).
On Windows you may find useful to have a phpserver.bat file in shell:sendto with the folowing:
explorer http://localhost:8888
rem check if arg is file or dir
if exist "%~1\" (
php -S localhost:8888 -t "%~1"
) else (
php -S localhost:8888 -t "%~dp1"
)
then for fast web testing you only have to SendTo a file or folder to this bat and it will open your explorer and run the server.
Note that to listen on a naked IPv6 address, you have to strangely enclose the address in so-called square brackets. Example:
$ php -S [9990:116:a001:1900::1001]:8080 -t web/
If your URI contains a dot, you'll lose the $_SERVER['PATH_INFO'] variable, when using the built-in webserver.
I wanted to write an API, and use .json ending in the URI-s, but then the framework's routing mechanism broke, and it took a lot of time to discover that the reason behind it was its router relying on $_SERVER['PATH_INFO'].
References:
https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=61286
This is my local php server
<?php
$request_uri = '.'.urldecode($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']);
if( is_dir($request_uri) ){
// server use the relative directory
$dirname = preg_replace('/\/{2}/', '/', $request_uri.'/');
$files_arr = array_filter(scandir($dirname), function($file_name){
return false == (bool)preg_match('/^\.+/', $file_name);
});
// browser use the absolute path_name which bases on the server root directory
$browser_path = preg_replace('/^\./', '', $dirname);
printf('<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, user-scalable=no, initial-scale=1.0">
</head>
<body>
%s
</body>
</html>',
implode(
preg_replace('/^(.*)$/', '<a href="'.$browser_path.'${1}">${1}</a>', $files_arr),
'<br/>'
)
);
}else{
header('Content-Type: '.mime_content_type($request_uri));
echo file_get_contents($request_uri);
}
Just gave it a try, and it is IPv6 compatible, if anyone was wondering.
My routing file looks like this:
if (file_exists($_SERVER["DOCUMENT_ROOT"] . $_SERVER["REQUEST_URI"])) {
return false;
} else {
require "index.php";
}
The reason is to support all static files.
<?php
/*
* Web serv mod v2 with ./WWW/
*
*/
$request_uri = '.'.urldecode($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']);
//var_dump($request_uri);
if($request_uri == './' ) { $request_uri = './www'; }
if(is_dir($request_uri) ){
// server use the relative directory
$dirname = preg_replace('/\/{2}/', '/', $request_uri.'/');
// browser use the absolute path_name which bases on the server root directory
$browser_path = preg_replace('/^\./', '', $dirname);
$ex = explode('/',$browser_path);
$g = '../';
foreach($ex as $k => $l) {
echo '<a href="../' . $g. '">' . str_ireplace('//' , '/' ,($l == '' ? '' : $g . '/' )) . '</a>';
$g = $l ;
}
echo '<br />', PHP_EOL;
$files_arr = '';
$d = dir($dirname);
//echo $d->path , '<br />', PHP_EOL;
while (false !== ($entry = $d->read())) {
if($entry != '.') {
if(is_dir($d->path . $entry) ){
$files_arr .= '<a href="' . $browser_path . $entry . '"> <img src="http://127.0.0.1:8000/res/folder.png" /> ' . $entry . '</a><br />' . PHP_EOL;
}
else {
$files_arr .= '<a href="' . $browser_path . $entry . '"> <img src="http://127.0.0.1:8000/res/file.png" /> ' . $entry . '</a><br />' . PHP_EOL;
}
}
}
$d->close();
echo '<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, user-scalable=no, initial-scale=1.0">
</head>
<body>
', $files_arr,'
</body>
</html>';
}else{
//$exp_url = explode('/',$request_uri);
@header('Content-Type: ' . @mime_content_type($request_uri));
//echo file_get_contents('www/' . $request_uri);
$handle = @fopen($request_uri, "rb");
if (FALSE === $handle) {
exit("Echec lors de l'ouverture du flux vers l'URL");
}
while (!feof($handle)) {
echo fread($handle, 8192);
}
fclose($handle);
}
?>
I improved Ivan Ferrer's phpserver.bat to open the Send To'd files in the browser directly:-
rem check if arg is file or dir
if exist "%~1\" (
explorer http://localhost:8888
php -S localhost:8888 -t "%~1"
) else (
explorer http://localhost:8888/%~nx1
php -S localhost:8888 -t "%~dp1"
)
when I need to up a server for develop with rewrite, I use it:
// php -S 0.0.0.0:8080 -file webServer.php
// webServer.php
<?php
if (preg_match('/\.css|\.js|\.jpg|\.png|\.map$/', $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'], $match)) {
$mimeTypes = [
'.css' => 'text/css',
'.js' => 'application/javascript',
'.jpg' => 'image/jpg',
'.png' => 'image/png',
'.map' => 'application/json'
];
$path = __DIR__ . $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'];
if (is_file($path)) {
header("Content-Type: {$mimeTypes[$match[0]]}");
require $path;
exit;
}
}
require_once __DIR__.'/../app/bootstrap.php';
