cv

The cv command is a utility for interacting with a CiviCRM installation. It performs an automatic scan to locate and boot the CiviCRM installation. It provides command-line access to helper functions and configuration data, such as APIv3 and site URLs.

Requirements

A local CiviCRM installation.

Support may vary depending on the host environment (CMS type, file-structure, symlinks, etc).

• Tested heavily: Drupal 7 single-site, WordPress single-site, UnitTests
• Tested lightly: Backdrop single-site, WordPress (alternate content root)
• Untested: Drupal 7 multi-site, WordPress multi-site, Joomla, Drupal 6, Drupal 8; any heavy symlinking
  • Tip: If you use an untested or incompatible host environment, then you may see the error Failed to locate civicrm.settings.php. See StackExchange to discuss work-arounds.

Download

cv is distributed in PHAR format, which is a portable executable file (for PHP). It should run on most Unix-like systems where PHP 5.3+ is installed.

Simply download cv and put it somewhere in the PATH, eg

sudo curl -LsS https://download.civicrm.org/cv/cv.phar -o /usr/local/bin/cv
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/cv

Example: CLI

me@localhost$ cd /var/www/my/web/site
me@localhost$ cv vars:show
me@localhost$ cv scr /path/to/throwaway.php
me@localhost$ cv ev 'echo Civi::paths()->get("[civicrm.root]/.");'
me@localhost$ cv url civicrm/dashboard --open
me@localhost$ cv api system.flush

If you intend to run unit-tests, and if you do not use civibuild, then you may need to supply some additional site information (such as the name of the test users). To do this, run:

me@localhost$ cd /var/www/my/web/site
me@localhost$ cv vars:fill
me@localhost$ vi ~/.cv.json

Example: PHP

Suppose you have a standalone script or a test runner which needs to execute in the context of a CiviCRM site. You don't want to hardcode it to a specific path, create special-purpose config files, or require a specific directory structure. Instead, call cv php:boot and eval(). The simplest way:

eval(`cv php:boot`)

However, it is better to create a small wrapper function to improve error-handling and output parsing:

/**
 * Call the "cv" command.
 *
 * @param string $cmd
 *   The rest of the command to send.
 * @param string $decode
 *   Ex: 'json' or 'phpcode'.
 * @return string
 *   Response output (if the command executed normally).
 * @throws \RuntimeException
 *   If the command terminates abnormally.
 */
function cv($cmd, $decode = 'json') {
  $cmd = 'cv ' . $cmd;
  $descriptorSpec = array(0 => array("pipe", "r"), 1 => array("pipe", "w"), 2 => STDERR);
  $env = $_ENV + array('CV_OUTPUT' => 'json');
  $process = proc_open($cmd, $descriptorSpec, $pipes, __DIR__, $env);
  fclose($pipes[0]);
  $result = stream_get_contents($pipes[1]);
  fclose($pipes[1]);
  if (proc_close($process) !== 0) {
    throw new RuntimeException("Command failed ($cmd):\n$result");
  }
  switch ($decode) {
    case 'raw':
      return $result;

    case 'phpcode':
      // If the last output is /*PHPCODE*/, then we managed to complete execution.
      if (substr(trim($result), 0, 12) !== "/*BEGINPHP*/" || substr(trim($result), -10) !== "/*ENDPHP*/") {
        throw new \RuntimeException("Command failed ($cmd):\n$result");
      }
      return $result;

    case 'json':
      return json_decode($result, 1);

    default:
      throw new RuntimeException("Bad decoder format ($decode)");
  }
}

eval(cv('php:boot', 'phpcode'));
$config = cv('vars:show');
printf("We should navigate to the dsahboard: %s\n\n", cv('url civicrm/dashboard'));

Example: NodeJS

See https://github.com/civicrm/cv-nodejs

Build

To build a new phar executable, use box:

$ git clone https://github.com/civicrm/cv
$ cd cv
$ composer install
$ php -dphar.readonly=0 `which box` build

Unit-Tests

To run the test suite, you will need an existing CiviCRM installation, preferrably based on buildkit. (Example: /home/me/buildkit/build/dmaster/)

$ git clone https://github.com/civicrm/cv
$ cd cv
$ composer install
$ export CV_TEST_BUILD=/home/me/buildkit/build/dmaster/
$ ./bin/phpunit
PHPUnit 3.7.10 by Sebastian Bergmann.

Configuration read from /home/me/src/cv/phpunit.xml.dist

.................................................

Time: 2 seconds, Memory: 6.50Mb

OK (49 tests, 121 assertions)