Please read this document to learn how to access command line console environment values and setup session variables when PHP is running from the terminal. console.

CLI Session Helper for PHP

A lightweight utility class to manage and inspect CLI session environments in PHP. Designed for cross-platform compatibility (Linux, macOS, Windows) with focus on stream handling, session identification, terminal capability detection, and environmental diagnostics.

> No external dependencies. Built for PHP 7+

Features

• Detects and resolves `STDIN`, `STDOUT`, `STDERR` in CLI environments
• Handles platform-specific stream opening safely
• Retrieves: - Terminal size (height and width) - Current user (`whoami`) - MAC address - OS and system model - Shell and terminal name
• Detects: - ANSI and color support - Platform type (Windows, macOS, Linux, cloud)
• Generates a unique system identifier for CLI sessions
• Silently handles errors using proper fallbacks

Installation

Install via Composer PHP package manager.

composer require peterujah/php-cli-session

Usage

Initialize CLI streams

use Peterujah\Cli\System\Session;

Session::init(); // Optional if constructor is called

Start PHP session with CLI-safe ID

$sessionId = Session::getSystemId();
session_id($sessionId);
session_start();

See working example CLI Demos

Examples

Get CLI terminal info

$info = Session::getSystemInfo();

foreach ($info as $item) {
    echo $item['Name'] . ': ' . $item['Value'] . PHP_EOL;
}

Detect color and ANSI support

if (Session::isColorSupported()) {
    echo "? Color output is supported." . PHP_EOL;
}

if (Session::isAnsiSupported()) {
    echo "? ANSI escape sequences are supported." . PHP_EOL;
}

Detect terminal dimensions

$width = Session::getWidth();
$height = Session::getHeight();

echo "Terminal Size: {$width} x {$height}" . PHP_EOL;

Methods Overview

| Method | Description | | ---------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------- | | init() | Initializes CLI stream resources (STDIN, STDOUT, etc.) | | getSystemId() | Returns a unique, hash-based identifier for the current system | | getSystemInfo() | Returns structured system diagnostics | | getTerminalName() | Returns terminal name (tty, PowerShell, etc.) | | getMacAddress() | Retrieves system MAC address | | getPid() | Gets the parent process ID | | whoami() | Gets the current user executing the script | | isColorSupported() | Checks if terminal supports color output | | isAnsiSupported() | Checks if terminal supports ANSI escape codes | | getWidth() / getHeight() | Gets terminal width and height | | isPlatform($os) | Checks for OS platform or cloud environment |

Platform Compatibility

| OS | Status | | -------- | -------------------------------------------- | | Linux | ? Tested | | macOS | ? Tested | | Windows | ? Tested | | BSD/Unix | ?? Partial support | | Docker | ? Supported (if tput or stty available) |

License

MIT License ? use it, hack it, extend it.

TODO

• Optional support for logging output to a file
• Add unit tests
• CLI command wrapper integration
• PHP framework integration hook