JApplicationCli command line interface app does not work as explained in the tutorial

Question

I have a Joomla website and I'm working on a Joomla command line interface application that would do some scheduled maintenance tasks. I follow the below article in building the cli app: https://docs.joomla.org/How_to_create_a_stand-alone_application_using_the_Joomla!_Platform Wayback link to 2019 version of documentation

... and also took a look at the files in my "cli" directory, for example garbabecron.php to learn how this should work.

Please see below my test file that is basically identical to garbagecron.php:

<?php
/**
 * @package    Joomla.Cli
 *
 * @copyright  Copyright (C) 2005 - 2018 Open Source Matters, Inc. All rights reserved.
 * @license    GNU General Public License version 2 or later; see LICENSE.txt
 */

/**
 * A command line cron job to trash expired cache data.
 */

// Initialize Joomla framework
const _JEXEC = 1;

// Load system defines
if (file_exists(dirname(__DIR__) . '/defines.php'))
{
    require_once dirname(__DIR__) . '/defines.php';
}

if (!defined('_JDEFINES'))
{
    define('JPATH_BASE', dirname(__DIR__));
    require_once JPATH_BASE . '/includes/defines.php';
}

// Get the framework.
require_once JPATH_LIBRARIES . '/import.legacy.php';

// Bootstrap the CMS libraries.
require_once JPATH_LIBRARIES . '/cms.php';

/**
 * Cron job to trash expired cache data.
 *
 * @since  2.5
 */
class GarbageCron extends JApplicationCli
{
    /**
     * Entry point for the script
     *
     * @return  void
     *
     * @since   2.5
     */
    public function doExecute()
    {
        $this->out("workin... \n");
        echo "still working... \n";
    }
}

echo "started... \n";
$cli = JApplicationCli::getInstance('GarbageCron')->execute();
echo "ready... \n";

During development I run the test.php file from a terminal (in production it will be triggered by a cron job). It seems that the code runs until the line where I try to create and execute the JApplicationCli class, but then nothing happens. The program prints the trace "started", but then nothing else. It seems like the object instantiation fails, but I don't get any error message either in the terminal. Please see the terminal output below:

gonative@uk20 [~]# /usr/bin/php /home/gonative/public_html/dev/cli/test.php
Content-type: text/html; charset=UTF-8

started... 
gonative@uk20 [~]# 

What am I doing wrong? The tutorial suggest a slightly different syntax as the one used in the garbagecron.php file. Which one is the right one? Does the garbagecron.php works at all? I was unable to prove this.

Thanks, W.

Answer 1

Normal echo commands don't work within in CLI commands. Try this instead: $this->out("started...");

Answer 2

It turned out that the code above is good. However I ran it again the wrong php installation that caused the constructor of the parent object of JApplicationCli to silently exit. Running the code against the right php executable, it all works fine! Thanks for the hints!