Fix Magento 2 – php cli error on cpanel or other hostings

The problem:

On a fresh install of Magento2 on cpanel based hosting, you receive the following error while running any command on SSH

[eee@e1 www]$ php bin/magento cache:clean
X-Powered-By: PHP/7.0.31
Content-type: text/html; charset=UTF-8

bin/magento must be run as a CLI application
[eee@e1 www]$ php bin/magento setup:upgrade
X-Powered-By: PHP/7.0.31
Content-type: text/html; charset=UTF-8

bin/magento must be run as a CLI application

The Solution:

You have to point php to correct binary;
Use the following code in order:
First, open the file which can alter the runtime variables like .bash_profile or .bashrc

cd ~ ; nano .bash_profile
OR
cd ~ ;nano .bashrc

Go to last line and paste this (depending upon php version change ea-php71 or ea-php70):

alias php='/opt/cpanel/ea-php71/root/usr/bin/php'

Save the file and exit the editor.
Log out and login again OR use the following command

$ source ~/.bashrc

If you are not sure about current php version, use which php or php -v command. If you think the cpanel configuration is the issue, fix EasyApache 4 PHP cli issue. With this way you can fix the setting and enable the new php version

Author: Harshvardhan Malpani

PHP Developer based in New Delhi, India. Working as a freelance web developer providing server deployment, website development and maintenance services. View all posts by Harshvardhan Malpani