Is there an alternative to system('cls') in PHP Console?

Question

I’m using PHP (5.7) on the console (Windows 10), but I’m not able to clear the screen. I give a system('cls') and only a little square with a question mark appears, without cleaning the screen.

I’ve done it this way:

for ($i = 0; $i < 50; $i++) echo "\r\n";

It cleans, but the next message gets down on the console and takes a while to clear, actually it just skips the lines, and I didn’t want that to happen. the system('cls') really cleans the console.

Is there any alternative or a way to solve this problem?

Answer 1

Try the following:

echo chr(27).chr(91).'H'.chr(27).chr(91).'J'; // ^[H^[J

Source: PHP clear terminal screen

Answer 2

cls is not a Windows executable, but a command from the command interpreter (cmd.exe on Windows 7, ...).

Thus, to be able to execute it must invoke the command interpreter:

cmd.exe /c cls

The argument /c force the interpreter to close after executing the command.

Answer 3

You can try it like this:

<?php
echo "Mensagem antes de limpar\n";

echo "\033[2J\033[1;1H";

echo "Mensagem depois de limpar\n";
?>

Where the ANSI \033[2J really cleans the screen, but its complementary \033[1;1H reset the start of the 'next screen', you can test only with \033[2J, but you will see that the text printed after that echo will be a little below the start of the window prompt.

This solution also works on the Linux, only in the Power Shell that I tested and it didn’t work.

The result will be this:

Answer 4

The codes of all other answers did not work in my environment:
Windows 10, PHP7 and earlier versions up to version 5.3.6.

Of all the answers found on the internet, the most bizarre is to do dozens of line breaks. It’s like sweeping dirt under the carpet.

In short, at the end of the tests, I concluded that under Windows 10, independent of the PHP version, just print "\r" quotes. Other commands used with the function chr() or write CMD escape characters, it seems to have no effect.

Test with the function Chr()

<?php
echo time()."\r";
chr(27);
sleep(1);
echo time();

I put the sleep(1) to test. No need to be there.

It is important that at the end of each printed line there is a return \r in double quotes.

The original script was adapted from that reply: https://stackoverflow.com/a/11424357/1685571

In the same reply, the comment of @ninja recursion. because the original code uses \n, which did not work. However, after switching to \r worked perfectly.

I also reduced all the code to simplify and make it clearer where the "magic" is. I removed the constructor echo because it makes no sense to use. The use of echo causes those strange symbols to be printed.

When executing was displayed 1484622554. It was then replaced by 1484622555 and finally, 1484622556.

That ^Z is due to ENTER, CTRL + Z, ENTER to execute the script.

Depending on the Windows version, it is CTRL + D.

From this logic, it is possible to leave more dynamic creating a kind of Wraper for the scripts to be executed. An example of "Wraper" is in the original answer. Just need to remove unnecessary points and make some adjustments. Which are described here.

Curiosities:

Out of curiosity, I tested if it is really the Chr() function that cleans the line. I changed the value of the parameter to any other value and gave the same result. Then I tried to remove the function and to my surprise, it worked as expected.

<?php
echo time()."a\r";
//chr(0);
//sleep(1);
echo time()."b\r";
//chr(0);
//sleep(1);
echo time()."c";

On this test, it seems chr() makes no difference. Printed the last value concatenated with "c" without printing the previous two.

Delimit the \r with single quote, print the three concatenated lines.

With this test we can see that just print "\r" in double quotes.

At least this works on Windows 10.

Common errors present in other answers is that almost all have the result printed by a constructor. This makes no sense and results in the printing of strange symbols like this �.

Invoke the cmd /c cls by function exec() also makes no sense because the cls shall be executed in another instance of CMD. This instance is empty and not visually accessible, that is, it is cleaning the invisible void. rsrs

Libraries of PHP

In PHP there is a specific function to perform the function of clear/cls. The function is ncurses_clear().

This function belongs to the library Ncurses and is available for Linux systems. However, it is an experimental library and the latest build is from 2012. Normally you don’t trust Ibraries of this type and the PHP manual itself warns. But nothing stops someone from continuing. Just read the source code, improve and compile.

Answer 5

Try this: popen('cls || clear','w');

It will work because || means "or" remember in c? Well, something else the cls command doesn’t work on Linux should use clear. Try and let me know if it worked!

Answer 6

Unfortunately, PHP 8.0.2 does not have a function to do this. However, if you just want to clear the console, try this: print (" 033 [2J 033 [; H"); or popen('cls','w'); Works in php 8.0.2. Same as system('cls') using c language programming