Outputting errors in stderr instead of stdout

[kkmuffme]

Would be great if it could output errors on stderr instead of stdout, so phpcf can be in automated deploy pipelines/CI.

e.g.
phpcf myfile >> /dev/null 2>> error.log

Additionally, having the output in json (or at least somewhat configurable) would be great too

[wapmorgan]

You can check for exitCode of process: if any problem found, it will be -1

[kkmuffme]

Yeah but by that time it is too late if I want to echo the output to a log file, so if it contains any data the deploy/CI process will stop & output the error.

[wapmorgan]

Streaming info to stderr does not fit into phpcf interaction model. May be using xml output would be good for this. But, really, you can use exit code to stop CI process after analyzing via phpcf.

[kkmuffme]

Ok would it be possible to get a json then on stdout (like phpcs offers)?

[wapmorgan]

Yeah, check out dev-master and use --output-json[=OUTPUT-JSON] Path to store json-file with problems found in code. option. This generates json with output like:

{
    "info_messages": [
        {
            "type": "info",
            "message": "Skipping file \/media\/wapmorgan\/HDD\/\u0414\u043e\u043a\u0443\u043c\u0435\u043d\u0442\u044b\/PhpCodeFixer\/tests\/trait.php due to file size limit."
        }
    ],
    "problems": [
        {
            "version": "5.3",
            "file": "\/5.3.php",
            "line": 3,
            "type": "ini",
            "checker": "define_syslog_variables"
        }
    ],
    "repalces_suggestions": [
        {
            "type": "function",
            "problem": "mcrypt_generic_end()",
            "replacement": "mcrypt_generic_deinit()"
        }
    ],
    "notes": [
        {
            "type": "function_usage",
            "problem": "piet() (@call_with_passing_by_reference)",
            "note": "Call with passing by reference is deprecated. Problem is \"&$hoho\""
        }
    ]
}

[kkmuffme]

@wapmorgan perfect.

Can you include the file path/name in the json too?

Also there is a small spelling mistake: repalces_suggestions => replace_suggestions

[kkmuffme]

@wapmorgan ah sorry, didn't see that bc it looks like version above

[wapmorgan]

Added path field to problems sections with full path to file.
Fixed typo - replace_suggestions now.

[kkmuffme]

Thanks

[kkmuffme]

I just tested this now and it would be nicer if:
a) the json would be single line (bc easier to process) - so just remove the new lines please
b) it would append to the file instead of overwriting it

That would make it really really easy to include in every CI/CD workflow
(but it's an amazing standalone tool already :-)

[wapmorgan]

bc easier to process

bc - is it a program? Which program does not support parsing a json with whitespaces?

it would append to the file instead of overwriting it

What do it for? This makes no sense: when you do new analyze, you need new results. Two json objects on different lines in the same file - is not valid json data.

[wapmorgan]

Now, If analyzer found any problem, phpcf returns 1 exit code. If you passed --output-json, result will be saved to this file. Then parse it and show)

Or I didn't understand use-case?

[kkmuffme]

I already worked around it & got it integrated :-)

Anyway the original use case was:
a) bc I can just parse 1 line (or parse a file line by line) instead of having to parse the whole file
b) yes it would make the json invalid, however when checking many files it easier to write the whole output to the same file and then just read this file line by line (e.g. how it can be done with psalm, phpcs,...)