The problem

The server:run command is both good and bad for beginners. It's good because it makes unnecessary to mess with Apache configuration. But it's bad because executing it blocks the console:

$ php app/console server:run
Server running on localhost:8000

As server:run doesn't return the user to the regular shell, he/she needs to open another console or he/she needs to launch the command in the background (server run &).

The proposed solution

I'd like to replace the current server:run command with three new commands modeled after the traditional web servers:

• server:start, it launches the built-in web server in the background and return the user to the regular shell.
• server:status, it checks if the server is running and tells you the URL and the port.
• server:stop, it stops the server launched with the server:start command.

As an added bonus, when launching the built-in server, the command could also check the availability of the 8000 port to choose the next available port number when the 8000 port is already used.