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How to Create a Console Command

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Warning: You are browsing the documentation for Symfony 2.4, which is no longer maintained.

Read the updated version of this page for Symfony 6.1 (the current stable version).

How to Create a Console Command

The Console page of the Components section (The Console Component) covers how to create a console command. This cookbook article covers the differences when creating console commands within the Symfony framework.

Automatically Registering Commands

To make the console commands available automatically with Symfony, create a Command directory inside your bundle and create a PHP file suffixed with Command.php for each command that you want to provide. For example, if you want to extend the AcmeDemoBundle to greet you from the command line, create GreetCommand.php and add the following to it:

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// src/Acme/DemoBundle/Command/GreetCommand.php
namespace Acme\DemoBundle\Command;

use Symfony\Bundle\FrameworkBundle\Command\ContainerAwareCommand;
use Symfony\Component\Console\Input\InputArgument;
use Symfony\Component\Console\Input\InputInterface;
use Symfony\Component\Console\Input\InputOption;
use Symfony\Component\Console\Output\OutputInterface;

class GreetCommand extends ContainerAwareCommand
{
    protected function configure()
    {
        $this
            ->setName('demo:greet')
            ->setDescription('Greet someone')
            ->addArgument('name', InputArgument::OPTIONAL, 'Who do you want to greet?')
            ->addOption('yell', null, InputOption::VALUE_NONE, 'If set, the task will yell in uppercase letters')
        ;
    }

    protected function execute(InputInterface $input, OutputInterface $output)
    {
        $name = $input->getArgument('name');
        if ($name) {
            $text = 'Hello '.$name;
        } else {
            $text = 'Hello';
        }

        if ($input->getOption('yell')) {
            $text = strtoupper($text);
        }

        $output->writeln($text);
    }
}

This command will now automatically be available to run:

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$ app/console demo:greet Fabien

Register Commands in the Service Container

Just like controllers, commands can be declared as services. See the dedicated cookbook entry for details.

Getting Services from the Service Container

By using ContainerAwareCommand as the base class for the command (instead of the more basic Command), you have access to the service container. In other words, you have access to any configured service:

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protected function execute(InputInterface $input, OutputInterface $output)
{
    $name = $input->getArgument('name');
    $logger = $this->getContainer()->get('logger');

    $logger->info('Executing command for '.$name);
    // ...
}

However, due to the container scopes this code doesn't work for some services. For instance, if you try to get the request service or any other service related to it, you'll get the following error:

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You cannot create a service ("request") of an inactive scope ("request").

Consider the following example that uses the translator service to translate some contents using a console command:

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protected function execute(InputInterface $input, OutputInterface $output)
{
    $name = $input->getArgument('name');
    $translator = $this->getContainer()->get('translator');
    if ($name) {
        $output->writeln($translator->trans('Hello %name%!', array('%name%' => $name)));
    } else {
        $output->writeln($translator->trans('Hello!'));
    }
}

If you dig into the Translator component classes, you'll see that the request service is required to get the locale into which the contents are translated:

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// vendor/symfony/symfony/src/Symfony/Bundle/FrameworkBundle/Translation/Translator.php
public function getLocale()
{
    if (null === $this->locale && $this->container->isScopeActive('request')
        && $this->container->has('request')) {
        $this->locale = $this->container->get('request')->getLocale();
    }

    return $this->locale;
}

Therefore, when using the translator service inside a command, you'll get the previous "You cannot create a service of an inactive scope" error message. The solution in this case is as easy as setting the locale value explicitly before translating contents:

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protected function execute(InputInterface $input, OutputInterface $output)
{
    $name = $input->getArgument('name');
    $locale = $input->getArgument('locale');

    $translator = $this->getContainer()->get('translator');
    $translator->setLocale($locale);

    if ($name) {
        $output->writeln($translator->trans('Hello %name%!', array('%name%' => $name)));
    } else {
        $output->writeln($translator->trans('Hello!'));
    }
}

However for other services the solution might be more complex. For more details, see How to Work with Scopes.

Testing Commands

When testing commands used as part of the full framework Symfony\\Bundle\\FrameworkBundle\\Console\\Application should be used instead of Symfony\\Component\\Console\\Application:

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use Symfony\Component\Console\Tester\CommandTester;
use Symfony\Bundle\FrameworkBundle\Console\Application;
use Acme\DemoBundle\Command\GreetCommand;

class ListCommandTest extends \PHPUnit_Framework_TestCase
{
    public function testExecute()
    {
        // mock the Kernel or create one depending on your needs
        $application = new Application($kernel);
        $application->add(new GreetCommand());

        $command = $application->find('demo:greet');
        $commandTester = new CommandTester($command);
        $commandTester->execute(
            array(
                'name'    => 'Fabien',
                '--yell'  => true,
            )
        );

        $this->assertRegExp('/.../', $commandTester->getDisplay());

        // ...
    }
}

2.4

Since Symfony 2.4, the CommandTester automatically detects the name of the command to execute. Prior to Symfony 2.4, you need to pass it via the command key.

Note

In the specific case above, the name parameter and the --yell option are not mandatory for the command to work, but are shown so you can see how to customize them when calling the command.

To be able to use the fully set up service container for your console tests you can extend your test from WebTestCase:

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use Symfony\Component\Console\Tester\CommandTester;
use Symfony\Bundle\FrameworkBundle\Console\Application;
use Symfony\Bundle\FrameworkBundle\Test\WebTestCase;
use Acme\DemoBundle\Command\GreetCommand;

class ListCommandTest extends WebTestCase
{
    public function testExecute()
    {
        $kernel = $this->createKernel();
        $kernel->boot();

        $application = new Application($kernel);
        $application->add(new GreetCommand());

        $command = $application->find('demo:greet');
        $commandTester = new CommandTester($command);
        $commandTester->execute(
            array(
                'name'    => 'Fabien',
                '--yell'  => true,
            )
        );

        $this->assertRegExp('/.../', $commandTester->getDisplay());

        // ...
    }
}
This work, including the code samples, is licensed under a Creative Commons BY-SA 3.0 license.
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