diff --git a/lib/init-cmd.php b/lib/init-cmd.php
index c36f0e57..e6de0522 100644
--- a/lib/init-cmd.php
+++ b/lib/init-cmd.php
@@ -1,7 +1,6 @@
 <?php
 	if (file_exists(getenv('NOMINATIM_SETTINGS')))
 	{
-		echo 'Using local config: '.getenv('NOMINATIM_SETTINGS');
 		require_once(getenv('NOMINATIM_SETTINGS'));
 	}
 
diff --git a/utils/query.php b/utils/query.php
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..b3fdb268
--- /dev/null
+++ b/utils/query.php
@@ -0,0 +1,55 @@
+#!/usr/bin/php -Cq
+<?php
+
+    require_once(dirname(dirname(__FILE__)).'/lib/init-cmd.php');
+    require_once(CONST_BasePath.'/lib/Geocode.php');
+    ini_set('memory_limit', '800M');
+
+	$aCMDOptions = array(
+		"Query database from command line. Returns search result as JSON.",
+		array('help', 'h', 0, 1, 0, 0, false, 'Show Help'),
+		array('quiet', 'q', 0, 1, 0, 0, 'bool', 'Quiet output'),
+		array('verbose', 'v', 0, 1, 0, 0, 'bool', 'Verbose output'),
+
+        array('search', '', 0, 1, 1, 1, 'string', 'Search for given term or coordinate'),
+
+        array('accept-language', '', 0, 1, 1, 1, 'string', 'Preferred language order for showing search results'),
+        array('bounded', '', 0, 1, 0, 0, 'bool', 'Restrict results to given viewbox'),
+        array('nodedupe', '', 0, 1, 0, 0, 'bool', 'Do not remove duplicate results'),
+        array('limit', '', 0, 1, 1, 1, 'int', 'Maximum number of results returned (default: 10)'),
+        array('exclude_place_ids', '', 0, 1, 1, 1, 'string', 'Comma-separated list of place ids to exclude from results'),
+        array('featureType', '', 0, 1, 1, 1, 'string', 'Restrict results to certain features (country, state,city,settlement)'),
+        array('countrycodes', '', 0, 1, 1, 1, 'string', 'Comma-separated list of countries to restrict search to'),
+        array('viewbox', '', 0, 1, 1, 1, 'string', 'Prefer results in given view box')
+    );
+    getCmdOpt($_SERVER['argv'], $aCMDOptions, $aCMDResult, true, true);
+
+    $oDB =& getDB();
+
+    if (isset($aCMDResult['search']) && $aCMDResult['search'])
+    {
+        if (isset($aCMDResult['bounded'])) $aCMDResult['bounded'] = 'true';
+        if (isset($aCMDResult['nodedupe'])) $aCMDResult['dedupe'] = 'false';
+
+        $oGeocode =& new Geocode($oDB);
+        if (isset($aCMDResult['accept-language']) && $aCMDResult['accept-language'])
+            $oGeocode->setLanguagePreference(getPreferredLanguages($aCMDResult['accept-language']));
+        else
+            $oGeocode->setLanguagePreference(getPreferredLanguages());
+        $oGeocode->loadParamArray($aCMDResult);
+        $oGeocode->setQuery($aCMDResult['search']);
+
+        $aSearchResults = $oGeocode->lookup();
+
+        if (version_compare(phpversion(), "5.4.0", '<'))
+            echo json_encode($aSearchResults);
+        else
+            echo json_encode($aSearchResults, JSON_PRETTY_PRINT | JSON_UNESCAPED_SLASHES | JSON_UNESCAPED_UNICODE)."\n";
+    }
+    else
+    {
+        showUsage($aCMDOptions, true);
+    }
+    
+
+