--check along with --dry-run not working as expected

[francisminu]

Hi,

My intention was to get a set of files and the errors associated with them with the --check command. But seems like --check returns just a non-zero response if there are any files that do not conform to the rules.

I tried the same, but the command 'dotnet format --check' doesn't seem to be different from running dotnet format without any options. They both format the file and save changes to disk.

Now, I tried to run the option --dry-run --check (as mentioned in another issue), so that it shows just the files that have error and returns a non-zero exit code. But, the command executed successfully.

Please find below the code against which the command was run:

       class Program
       {
          static void Main(string[] args)
         {
            test();
            Console.WriteLine("Inside Main");
         }
         public static void test()
         {
            var i = 0;
            if (i == 0){
                Console.WriteLine("i is 0");
            }
            else
            {
                Console.WriteLine("i is not 0");
            }
            Console.WriteLine("Inside Test method");
         }
       }

Rule:
csharp_new_line_before_else = true
csharp_new_line_before_open_brace = all

When I ran > dotnet format --check
The braces were formatted in the file Program.cs and the changes were saved.

Now, I tried running > dotnet format --dry-run --check
With the hope that it will exit with non-zero exit code. But it showed the below message:

Formatting code files in workspace 'C:\Project\MyHobbyProjects\EditoConfigCLISample\ConsoleApp1\ConsoleApp1.sln'.
Loading workspace.
Workspace loaded in 1785ms.
Formatting code files in project 'ConsoleApp1'.
Formatting code file 'Program.cs'.
Formatted code file 'Program.cs'.
Formatted 1 of 3 files in 1275ms.
Format complete.

Is it possible to display the files that doesn't abide by EditorConfig and the rules that it does not conform to?

Thanks!

[jmarolf]

@francisminu can you post what the formatted file looks like? what does the formatter do with these settings?

[francisminu]

When I run just --check, the files are formatted (just like running dotnet format without any options) and the response is as below:

    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            test();
            Console.WriteLine("Inside Main");
        }

        public static void test()
        {
            var i = 0;
            if (i == 0)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("i is 0");
            }
            else
            {
                Console.WriteLine("i is not 0");
            }
            Console.WriteLine("Inside Test method");
        }
    }

When I run --dry-run --check, the files are not formatted, but the message in CLI is as below and the code is given below it:

Formatting code files in workspace 'C:\Project\MyHobbyProjects\EditoConfigCLISample\ConsoleApp1\ConsoleApp1.sln'.
Loading workspace.
Workspace loaded in 1497ms.
Formatting code files in project 'ConsoleApp1'.
Formatting code file 'Program.cs'.
Formatted code file 'Program.cs'.
Formatted 1 of 3 files in 1061ms.
Format complete.

Code:

    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            test();
            Console.WriteLine("Inside Main");
        }

        public static void test()
        {
            var i = 0;
            if (i == 0){ 
                Console.WriteLine("i is 0");
            }
            else
            {
                Console.WriteLine("i is not 0");
            }
            Console.WriteLine("Inside Test method");
        }
    }

The console shows the same message in either case. But while running --dry-run --check together, the file is not modified.

Thanks!

[francisminu]

@jmarolf Hi Jonathan,
Any update on this one?

Thanks!

[jmarolf]

Haven't had time to look at this yet @JoeRobich whitespace rules are always applied correct?

[ghost]

If you don't mind, I think I can provide some input on this since I wrote some of the logging code. The --dry-run option specifies that changes are not saved to disk. The log messages that say files were formatted, I believe, are output after changes are discovered but before the program decides if it needs to actually save those changes to disk. The log messages may simply need to be refactored to happen at a different time.

As for some of the other points:

1. if --dry-run --check is not returning a non-zero exit code, that sounds like a bug to me.
2. I don't believe there's a way to output the specific rules that fail currently, but one of the maintainers can provide a more definitive answer on that.

[AnthonyMastrean]

I installed this version

PS> dotnet format --version
3.0.4+211cab024c37fdffa5955c5855f9d62a14703452

And ran the same command with some extra status reporting at the end

PS> dotnet format --check --dry-run; $?; $LASTEXITCODE
  Formatting code files in workspace 'C:\Users\anthony\example\Example.sln'.
  Formatting code files in project 'Example'.
  Formatted code file 'Foo.cs'.
  Formatted code file 'Bar.cs'.
  Formatted code file 'Baz.cs'.
  ...
  Format complete.
False
1

And I double-checked the git status just to be sure that check didn't change any files (adhering to the dry-run flag).

PS> git status
On branch master
Your branch is up to date with 'origin/master'.

nothing to commit, working tree clean

[arnavb]

IMO, this behavior doesn't really make sense. Other autoformatters, like prettier or black (for JS and Python respectively), print out an error message instead of actually changing files. I feel like this tool should follow the same convention.

[JoeRobich]

@AnthonyMastrean Thanks for giving it a run. That is the expected behavior. The formatter is run against each file and the files with formatting changes are printed to the console as Formatted code file 'Foo.cs'. Because files were formatted a non-zero exit code was returned as expected.

@arnavb I think the story around logging formatting issues is one that we could improve on. Perhaps an easy change to give more meaningful feedback would be to Log the Formatted code file 'Foo.cs'. message as Error instead of Info when the check flag is passed.

[JoeRobich]

@arnavb With #249, we now log individual messages for each formatting issue. These are printed during --dry-runs and when you also include the --check flag it will log as an Error instead of a Warning.

You can try this change by installing from myget

dotnet tool install -g dotnet-format --version 3.1.36303 --add-source https://dotnet.myget.org/F/format/api/v3/index.json

[JoeRobich]

Closing issue due to inactivity.