This is so weird!
After I got my new machine at work installed by the sys admin, I pushed my git code to the machine from my local one. it works via browser but artisan doesnt work at all .. nothing get outputted.
I edited my cli php.ini and added error displaying and logging, no errors get displayed or logged.
I opened artisan file, put some echo ""; and traced where it stops, it was just before $artisan = Illuminate\Console\Application::start($app);
that normally happens when you have a ServiceProvider problem. If you have vanilla copy of Laravel 5 then run the following commands:
//ensure you have the lastest version of composer - very important
composer self-update
// if you do then run, when in doubt always run this to regen your class maps
composer dump-autoload
// if you can get to php artisan then run
php artisan clear-compiled
// there are other optimize commands but these will be your friends
If none of those are working then go check your composer.json file i.e. run
composer validate // I think that is the command to check your json file
if that doesn't help then undo any changes you made to composer.json or any Facades or ServiceProviders you've added and start over or double check.
Alright guys. Thanks all for trying to assist. something weird must have happened as I compared my other Laravel folder to this one and found out there were a whole lot of files missing! How bizarre! I have no idea how so many of my files just disapeared.
So my solution: I just kept copying files from a working Laravel project and eventually I came right.
You need to run composer install in your fresh installation in order for artisan to work - your git repository doesn't usually hold your vendor directory, where the artisan files are!