PHP CodeSniffer - Command Line Usage

First, make sure that you installed Coder and PHPCS correctly by following the installation instructions.

Check Drupal coding standards

phpcs --standard=Drupal --extensions=php,module,inc,install,test,profile,theme,info,txt,md,yml /path/to/drupal/example_module

Or an individual core file:

phpcs --standard=Drupal core/includes/install.core.inc

Check Drupal coding standards and ignore composer and node.js directories

phpcs --standard=Drupal --extensions=php,module,inc,install,test,profile,theme,info,txt,md,yml --ignore=node_modules,bower_components,vendor /path/to/drupal/example_module

List enabled Drupal coding standards rules

phpcs --standard=Drupal -e

Check only one rule

phpcs --standard=Drupal --extensions=php,module,inc,install,test,profile,theme,info,txt,md,yml --sniffs=Drupal.Classes.UnusedUseStatement /path/to/drupal/example_module

Check Drupal best practices

phpcs --standard=DrupalPractice --extensions=php,module,inc,install,test,profile,theme,info,txt,md,yml /path/to/drupal/example_module

Automatically fix coding standards

phpcbf --standard=Drupal --extensions=php,module,inc,install,test,profile,theme,info,txt,md,yml /path/to/drupal/example_module

Store settings in a phpcs.xml.dist file

In order to save and commit your PHPCS settings to Git you can use a phpcs.xml.dist file in your project. See the phpcs.xml.dist example in Coder's README (we cannot render XML examples here in drupal.org doc pages). Then you can invoke phpcs without any options and it will read phpcs.xml.dist from the current directory. This can also be useful for Continuous Integration setups.

Setting up aliases (optional)

Running that long command every time is annoying. You probably want to set up shell aliases:

1. Figure out which shell you're using:
   

   $ echo $SHELL 

   Take note of the text after the last /: this is your shell. Common ones are bash and zsh.

2. If you're using bash, edit $HOME/.bashrc (or $HOME/.bash_profile, or $HOME/.bash_aliases).

   If you're using zsh, edit $HOME/.zshrc.

3. At the bottom of the file, add the aliases:
   

   alias drupalcs="phpcs --standard=Drupal --extensions='php,module,inc,install,test,profile,theme,info,txt,md,yml'"
   alias drupalcsp="phpcs --standard=DrupalPractice --extensions='php,module,inc,install,test,profile,theme,info,txt,md,yml'"
   alias drupalcbf="phpcbf --standard=Drupal --extensions='php,module,inc,install,test,profile,theme,info,txt,md,yml'"

4. Re-run your .bashrc or .zshrc file so it picks up your new alias.
   

   $ source ~/.bashrc 

   ... or...

   $ source ~/.bash_profile 

   ... or...

   $ source ~/.zshrc 

   ... or, restart your shell/terminal.

5. Now you can use the aliases like this:
   

   $ drupalcs sites/all/modules/mymodule
   $ drupalcsp sites/all/modules/mymodule
   $ drupalcbf sites/all/modules/mymodule
   

Verify Registered Standards

You can verify phpcs is set up correctly this way:

$ phpcs -i
Above command should include DrupalPractice and Drupal in the installed coding standards list. (See installer info for more)

For further information about the usage of PHP_CodeSniffer please see its documentation:

• Usage
• Advanced Usage