MAMP's php interactive mode broken?

Question

I'm using MAMP Version 2.0.5 (2.0.5) on Mac OS X Lion 10.7.3. When I try to use php's interactive mode by

/Applications/MAMP/bin/php/php5.3.6/bin/php -a

it displays Interactive mode enabled and then hangs. No commands work.

This forum post says others have found it broken. Has anyone found a fix?

Answer 1

This is most probably caused by the PHP you are using not being compiled with readline support (--with-readline). Some distros dont compile with that option because of problems with the libraries or licencing issues, Debian for example - http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=576218

Answer 2

It works fine.

Type this after you see Interactive mode enabled:

<?php
echo "test\n";
?>

and press ctrl+d.

test will be printed.

Also see this question: mac os php intratactive mode has no prompt

To use the default php version that is shipped with OS X, you can do this in a terminal:

mv /Applications/MAMP/bin/php/php5.3.6/bin/php /Applications/MAMP/bin/php/php5.3.6/bin/php.bak
ln -s /usr/bin/php /Applications/MAMP/bin/php/php5.3.6/bin/php