Why does PHP_SAPI not equal 'cli' when called from a cron job?

Question

Here is the line from my cron job...

*/5 * * * * php /home/user/public_html/index.php --uri=minion --task=emailassets 

When my script runs from this cron job, the PHP constant PHP_SAPI equals 'cgi-fcgi'. Why does PHP_SAPI not equal 'cli'?

Answer 1

From php.net manual:

The php_sapi_name() function is extremely useful when you want to determine the type of interface. There is, however, one more gotcha you need to be aware of while designing your application or deploying it to an unknown server.

Whenever something depends on the type of interface, make sure your check is conclusive. Especially when you want to distinguish the command line interface (CLI) from the common gateway interface (CGI).

Note, that the php-cgi binary can be called from the command line, from a shell script or as a Cron Job as well! If so, the php_sapi_name() will always return the same value (i.e. "cgi-fcgi") instead of "cli" which you could expect.

Do not always expect /usr/bin/php to be a link to php-cli binary.

Luckily the contents of the $_SERVER and the $_ENV superglobal arrays depends on whether the php-cgi binary is called from the command line interface (by a shell script, by the Cron Job, etc.) or by some HTTP server (i.e. Lighttpd).