Reporter throws exception when it can't create a file

[designermonkey]

phpcs --report=json -q -s --encoding=UTF-8 --standard=/blah/blah/phpcs.xml --error-severity=5 --warning-severity=5 --stdin-path=/blah/blah/src/Command/Command.php

PHP Warning:  file_put_contents(doc/codesniffer.xml): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in phar:///usr/local/Cellar/php-code-sniffer/3.2.3/bin/phpcs/src/Reporter.php on line 2
PHP Stack trace:
PHP   1. {main}() /usr/local/Cellar/php-code-sniffer/3.2.3/bin/phpcs:0
PHP   2. PHP_CodeSniffer\Runner->runPHPCS() /usr/local/Cellar/php-code-sniffer/3.2.3/bin/phpcs:6
PHP   3. PHP_CodeSniffer\Runner->run() phar:///usr/local/Cellar/php-code-sniffer/3.2.3/bin/phpcs/src/Runner.php:2
PHP   4. PHP_CodeSniffer\Reporter->__construct() phar:///usr/local/Cellar/php-code-sniffer/3.2.3/bin/phpcs/src/Runner.php:2
PHP   5. file_put_contents() phar:///usr/local/Cellar/php-code-sniffer/3.2.3/bin/phpcs/src/Reporter.php:2

Warning: file_put_contents(doc/codesniffer.xml): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in phar:///usr/local/Cellar/php-code-sniffer/3.2.3/bin/phpcs/src/Reporter.php on line 2

Call Stack:
    0.0004     392528   1. {main}() /usr/local/Cellar/php-code-sniffer/3.2.3/bin/phpcs:0
    0.0048     743600   2. PHP_CodeSniffer\Runner->runPHPCS() /usr/local/Cellar/php-code-sniffer/3.2.3/bin/phpcs:6
    0.2503    3667632   3. PHP_CodeSniffer\Runner->run() phar:///usr/local/Cellar/php-code-sniffer/3.2.3/bin/phpcs/src/Runner.php:2
    0.2507    3718464   4. PHP_CodeSniffer\Reporter->__construct() phar:///usr/local/Cellar/php-code-sniffer/3.2.3/bin/phpcs/src/Runner.php:2
    0.2515    3767816   5. file_put_contents() phar:///usr/local/Cellar/php-code-sniffer/3.2.3/bin/phpcs/src/Reporter.php:2

If I create the folder, it works. Can CodeSniffer be made to ensure the directory exists before trying to use it? Surely better than throwing an exception.

[gsherwood]

When I use --report-file on the command line, or include the report file option using the <arg> tag in my standard, I get this output from PHPCS:

ERROR: The specified report file path "doc/codesniffer.xml" points to a non-existent directory

But I can replicate the issue if using something like --report-json=doc/codesniffer.xml

I'll work on fixing that exception up, but please let me know if you are replicating in a different way.

[gsherwood]

I've committed a change to print a friendly error message for the scenario I list above. I'll leave this in feedback in case you've got different replication steps.

[designermonkey]

Thanks for the help, I'll take a look asap.

[gsherwood]

I'm going to assume this is done now, but please let me know if you find more problems.