Reload a firefox browser tab from bash

Save this in a script & run it whenever you need to reload the active tab. See Add Bash Script to Terminal.

SHOULD_SWITCH_BACK=$1 # y/Y means it will switch back to current window
CURRENT_WINDOW=$(xdotool getactivewindow)
KEY="CTRL+F5"
BROWSER="Firefox"

xdotool search --desktop 0 ${BROWSER} windowactivate
xdotool key ${KEY}
if [[ $SHOULD_SWITCH_BACK == 'y' || $SHOULD_SWITCH_BACK == 'Y' ]]; then
    xdotool windowfocus --sync ${CURRENT_WINDOW}
    xdotool windowactivate --sync ${CURRENT_WINDOW}
fi

Thanks to stack exchange users & askubuntu users for their work that got me here.

Run it from PHP

To use this from PHP:

system($theDir.'/reload.sh');
//or system($theDir.'/reload.sh y'); //to switch back to your active window