SilverStripe can call Controllers through a command line interface (CLI) just as easily as through a web browser. This functionality can be used to automate tasks with cron jobs, run unit tests, or anything else that needs to interface over the command line.

The main entry point for any command line execution is framework/cli-script.php. For example, to run a database rebuild from the command line, use this command:

	cd your-webroot/
	php framework/cli-script.php dev/build

Your command line php version is likely to use a different configuration as your webserver (run php -i to find out more). This can be a good thing, your CLI can be configured to use higher memory limits than you would want your website to have. [/notice]

Sake - SilverStripe Make#

Sake is a simple wrapper around cli-script.php. It also tries to detect which php executable to use if more than one are available.

[info] If you are using a Debian server: Check you have the php-cli package installed for sake to work. If you get an error when running the command php -v, then you may not have php-cli installed so sake won't work. [/info]

Installation#

sake can be invoked using ./framework/sake. For easier access, copy the sake file into /usr/bin/sake.

	cd your-webroot/
	sudo ./framework/sake installsake

This currently only works on UNIX like systems, not on Windows. [/warning]

Configuration#

Sometimes SilverStripe needs to know the URL of your site. For example, when sending an email or generating static files. When you're visiting the site in a web browser this is easy to work out, but when executing scripts on the command line, it has no way of knowing. To work this out, add lines to your _ss_environment.php file.

	global $_FILE_TO_URL_MAPPING;

	$_FILE_TO_URL_MAPPING['/Users/sminnee/Sites'] = 'http://localhost';

base URL http://localhost. The site /Users/sminnee/Sites/my_silverstripe_project will translate to the URL http://localhost/my_silverstripe_project.

You can add multiple file to url mapping definitions. The most specific mapping will be used.

	global $_FILE_TO_URL_MAPPING;

	$_FILE_TO_URL_MAPPING['/Users/sminnee/Sites'] = 'http://localhost';
	$_FILE_TO_URL_MAPPING['/Users/sminnee/Sites/my_silverstripe_project'] = 'http://project.localhost';

Sake can run any controller by passing the relative URL to that controller.

	sake /
	# returns the homepage

	sake dev/
	# shows a list of development operations

	sake dev/build "flush=1"

	sake dev/tests/all

	sake dev/tasks/MyReallyLongTask

sake can be used to make daemon processes for your application.

Make a task or controller class that runs a loop. To avoid memory leaks, you should make the PHP process exit when it hits some reasonable memory limit. Sake will automatically restart your process whenever it exits.

Include some appropriate sleep()s so that your process doesn't hog the system. The best thing to do is to have a short sleep when the process is in the middle of doing things, and a long sleep when doesn't have anything to do.

This code provides a good template:

	<?php

	class MyProcess extends Controller {

		private static $allowed_actions = array(
			'index'
		);

		function index() {
			set_time_limit(0);

			while(memory_get_usage() < 32*1024*1024) {
				if($this->somethingToDo()) {
					$this->doSomething();
					sleep(1)
				} else {
					sleep(300);
				}
			}
		}
	}

	sake -start MyProcess
	sake -stop MyProcess

[notice] sake stores pid and log files in the site root directory. [/notice]

Arguments#

Parameters can be added to the command. All parameters will be available in $_GET array on the server.

	cd your-webroot/
	php framework/cli-script.php myurl myparam=1 myotherparam=2

	sake myurl "myparam=1&myotherparam=2"

On a UNIX machine, you can typically run a scheduled task with a cron job. Run BuildTask in SilverStripe as a cron job using sake.

The following will run MyTask every minute.