How to Call Other Commands

If a command depends on another one being run before it, instead of asking the user to remember the order of execution, you can call it directly yourself. This is also useful if you want to create a "meta" command that just runs a bunch of other commands (for instance, all commands that need to be run when the project's code has changed on the production servers: clearing the cache, generating Doctrine2 proxies, dumping Assetic assets, ...).

Calling a command from another one is straightforward:

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use Symfony\Component\Console\Input\ArrayInput;
use Symfony\Component\Console\Input\InputInterface;
use Symfony\Component\Console\Output\OutputInterface;
// ...

protected function execute(InputInterface $input, OutputInterface $output)
{
    $command = $this->getApplication()->find('demo:greet');

    $arguments = [
        'command' => 'demo:greet',
        'name'    => 'Fabien',
        '--yell'  => true,
    ];

    $greetInput = new ArrayInput($arguments);
    $returnCode = $command->run($greetInput, $output);

    // ...
}

First, you find() the command you want to execute by passing the command name. Then, you need to create a new ArrayInput with the arguments and options you want to pass to the command.

Eventually, calling the run() method actually executes the command and returns the returned code from the command (return value from command's execute() method).