so, if you only type:
followed by a carriage return,
the cursor moves down one line without a prompt?

If so, this is normal. It means php is waiting for the code to execute.

In that case, enter:
followed by a cariage return and then "control+d".

If you get a long list of settings, then php command line is working as it should.

It just needs to be started, then script/command entered, and told when to process the script/command.