Command Line Interface

As the codebase is updated, we hope to keep these documents updated as well. Unless otherwise stated, this documentation currently applies to the latest PhantomJS release: PhantomJS 2.1.1

Assuming PhantomJS is built and its executable is placed somewhere in the PATH, it can be invoked as follows:

phantomjs [options] somescript.js [arg1 [arg2 [...]]]

The script code will be executed as if it running in a web browser with an empty page. Since PhantomJS is headless, there will not be anything visible shown up on the screen.

If PhantomJS is invoked without any argument, it will enter the interactive mode (REPL).

Command-line Options

Supported command-line options are:

--help or -h lists all possible command-line options. Halts immediately, will not run a script passed as argument.
--version or -v prints out the version of PhantomJS. Halts immediately, will not run a script passed as argument.
--debug=[true|false] prints additional warning and debug message, default is false. Also accepted: [yes|no].
--config specifies JSON-formatted configuration file (see below).
--cookies-file=/path/to/cookies.txt specifies the file name to store the persistent Cookies.
--disk-cache=[true|false] enables disk cache (at desktop services cache storage location, default is false). Also accepted: [yes|no].
--disk-cache-path specifies the location for the disk cache.
--ignore-ssl-errors=[true|false] ignores SSL errors, such as expired or self-signed certificate errors (default is false). Also accepted: [yes|no].
--load-images=[true|false] load all inlined images (default is true). Also accepted: [yes|no].
--local-storage-path=/some/path path to save LocalStorage content and WebSQL content.
--local-storage-quota=number maximum size to allow for data.
--local-url-access allows use of ‘file:///’ URLs (default is ‘true’).
--local-to-remote-url-access=[true|false] allows local content to access remote URL (default is false). Also accepted: [yes|no].
--max-disk-cache-size=size limits the size of disk cache (in KB).
--offline-storage-path specifies the location for offline storage.
--offline-storage-quota sets the maximum size of the offline storage (in KB).
--output-encoding=encoding sets the encoding used for terminal output (default is utf8).
--remote-debugger-port starts the script in a debug harness and listens on the specified port
--remote-debugger-autorun runs the script in the debugger immediately: ‘yes’ or ‘no’ (default)
--proxy=address:port specifies the proxy server to use (e.g. --proxy=192.168.1.42:8080).
--proxy-type=[http|socks5|none] specifies the type of the proxy server (default is http).
--proxy-auth specifies the authentication information for the proxy, e.g. --proxy-auth=username:password).
--script-encoding=encoding sets the encoding used for the starting script (default is utf8).
--script-language sets the script language instead of detecting it: ‘javascript’.
--ssl-protocol=[sslv3|sslv2|tlsv1|tlsv1.1|tlsv1.2|any] sets the SSL protocol for secure connections (default is SSLv3). Not all values may be supported, depending on the system OpenSSL library.
--ssl-certificates-path=<val> sets the location for custom CA certificates (if none set, uses system default).
--ssl-client-certificate-file sets the location of a client certificate.
--ssl-client-key-file sets the location of a clients’ private key.
--ssl-client-key-passphrase sets the passphrase for the clients’ private key.
--ssl-ciphers sets supported TLS/SSL ciphers. Argument is a colon-separated list of OpenSSL cipher names (macros like ALL, kRSA, etc. may not be used). Default matches modern browsers.
--web-security=[true|false] enables web security and forbids cross-domain XHR (default is true). Also accepted: [yes|no].
--webdriver starts in ‘Remote WebDriver mode’ (embedded GhostDriver): ‘[[:]]' (default '127.0.0.1:8910')
--webdriver-selenium-grid-hub URL to the Selenium Grid HUB: ‘URL_TO_HUB’ (default ‘none’) (NOTE: works only together with ‘–webdriver’)
--webdriver-logfile file where to write the WebDriver’s Log (default ‘none’) (NOTE: needs ‘–webdriver’)
--webdriver-loglevel WebDriver Logging Level: (supported: ‘ERROR’, ‘WARN’, ‘INFO’, ‘DEBUG’) (default ‘INFO’) (NOTE: needs ‘–webdriver’)

Alternatively, since PhantomJS 1.3, you can also utilize a JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) configuration file instead of passing in multiple command-line options:

--config=/path/to/config.json

The contents of config.json should be a standalone JavaScript object. Keys are de-dashed, camel-cased equivalents of the other supported command-line options (excluding --version/-v and --help/-h). Values are their JavaScript equivalents: ‘true’/’false’ (or ‘yes’/’no’) values translate into true/false Boolean values, numbers remain numbers, strings remain strings. For example:

{
  /* Same as: --ignore-ssl-errors=true */
  "ignoreSslErrors": true,

  /* Same as: --max-disk-cache-size=1000 */
  "maxDiskCacheSize": 1000,

  /* Same as: --output-encoding=utf8 */
  "outputEncoding": "utf8"

  /* etc. */
}

There are some keys that do not translate directly:

 * --disk-cache => diskCacheEnabled
 * --load-images => autoLoadImages
 * --local-storage-path => offlineStoragePath
 * --local-storage-quota => offlineStorageDefaultQuota
 * --local-to-remote-url-access => localToRemoteUrlAccessEnabled
 * --web-security => webSecurityEnabled
 * --debug => printDebugMessages

Command Line Interface

Command-line Options

Documentation