How to use the PHP Shell The PHP command shell lets you execute arbitrary PHP statements on the server. These commands are executed using the eval() function, and execute in the context of the current session. This shell is intended to try out syntax and execute some simple arbitrary code. Note that to get any output, you must echo or print something in your code fragment. How to use the SQL Shell The SQL query shell lets you execute arbitrary SQL statements on your database. These commands are executed against the database defined in $conf['sql'] using the PEAR::DB classes. You can use this tool to do queries into the database, to do complicated SQL updates, deletes, etc., or to do simple data collection. It sends SQL queries to the database directly, and will report return codes and complete result sets. How to use the Command Shell The command shell lets you execute arbitrary shell commands on your server. You can use this to do quick shell operations or when a shell is not otherwise available.