What is the canonical way to determine commandline vs. http execution of a PHP script?
Use the php_sapi_name() function.
if (php_sapi_name() == "cli") { // In cli-mode} else { // Not in cli-mode}Here are some relevant notes from the docs:
php_sapi_name — Returns the type of interface between web server and PHP
Although not exhaustive, the possible return values include aolserver, apache, apache2filter, apache2handler, caudium, cgi (until PHP 5.3), cgi-fcgi, cli, cli-server, continuity, embed, isapi, litespeed, milter, nsapi, phttpd, pi3web, roxen, thttpd, tux, and webjames.
In PHP >= 4.2.0, there is also a predefined constant, PHP_SAPI, that has the same value as php_sapi_name().
This will always work. (If the PHP version is 4.2.0 or higher)
define('CLI', PHP_SAPI === 'cli');Which makes it easy to use at the top of your scripts:
<?php PHP_SAPI === 'cli' or die('not allowed');
Here is Drupal 7 implementation: drupal_is_cli():
function drupal_is_cli() { return (!isset($_SERVER['SERVER_SOFTWARE']) && (php_sapi_name() == 'cli' || (is_numeric($_SERVER['argc']) && $_SERVER['argc'] > 0)));}However Drupal 8 recommends using PHP_SAPI === 'cli'