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How do you access command line arguments passed to a PHP script using the $argv and $argc superglobals?

Beginner

Answer

The $argv superglobal is an array containing every argument passed to the script from the command line, with the first element always being the script's own file name, and $argc contains the total count of those arguments, together letting your script read and respond to whatever specific arguments were provided when it was invoked, similar to how a web script reads data from $_GET or $_POST.
// Running: php greet.php Ali
echo "Script name: $argv[0]";
echo "First argument: $argv[1]";
echo "Total arguments: $argc";
Real-world example A backup script reads the target directory to back up directly from a command line argument, letting the same script be reused flexibly for different directories simply by changing the argument provided each time it is run.

Common follow-ups: How do you provide default values for optional command line arguments that were not supplied?;What is the difference between $argv and using PHP's more structured getopt function?

Functions & Scope;File Handling & File System Functions
All 7 PHP CLI Scripting questions