PHP_CodeSniffer is a set of two PHP scripts; the main `phpcs` script that tokenizes PHP, JavaScript and CSS files to detect violations of a defined coding standard, and a second `phpcbf` script to automatically correct coding standard violations. PHP_CodeSniffer is an essential development tool that ensures your code remains clean and consistent.
[](https://travis-ci.org/squizlabs/PHP_CodeSniffer) [](http://squizlabs.github.io/PHP_CodeSniffer/analysis/squizlabs/PHP_CodeSniffer) [](https://gitter.im/squizlabs/PHP_CodeSniffer?utm_source=badge&utm_medium=badge&utm_campaign=pr-badge&utm_content=badge)
PHP_CodeSniffer requires PHP version 5.4.0 or greater, although individual sniffs may have additional requirements such as external applications and scripts. See the [Configuration Options manual page](https://github.com/squizlabs/PHP_CodeSniffer/wiki/Configuration-Options) for a list of these requirements.
If you're using PHP_CodeSniffer as part of a team, or you're running it on a [CI](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuous_integration) server, you may want to configure your project's settings [using a configuration file](https://github.com/squizlabs/PHP_CodeSniffer/wiki/Advanced-Usage#using-a-default-configuration-file).
If you use Composer, you can install PHP_CodeSniffer system-wide with the following command:
composer global require "squizlabs/php_codesniffer=*"
Make sure you have the composer bin dir in your PATH. The default value is `~/.composer/vendor/bin/`, but you can check the value that you need to use by running `composer global config bin-dir --absolute`.
Or alternatively, include a dependency for `squizlabs/php_codesniffer` in your `composer.json` file. For example:
```json
{
"require-dev": {
"squizlabs/php_codesniffer": "3.*"
}
}
```
You will then be able to run PHP_CodeSniffer from the vendor bin directory:
./vendor/bin/phpcs -h
./vendor/bin/phpcbf -h
### Phive
If you use Phive, you can install PHP_CodeSniffer as a project tool using the following commands:
phive install phpcs
phive install phpcbf
You will then be able to run PHP_CodeSniffer from the tools directory:
If you use PEAR, you can install PHP_CodeSniffer using the PEAR installer. This will make the `phpcs` and `phpcbf` commands immediately available for use. To install PHP_CodeSniffer using the PEAR installer, first ensure you have [installed PEAR](http://pear.php.net/manual/en/installation.getting.php) and then run the following command:
The default coding standard used by PHP_CodeSniffer is the PEAR coding standard. To check a file against the PEAR coding standard, simply specify the file's location:
$ phpcs /path/to/code/myfile.php
Or if you wish to check an entire directory you can specify the directory location instead of a file.
$ phpcs /path/to/code-directory
If you wish to check your code against the PSR-2 coding standard, use the `--standard` command line argument:
$ phpcs --standard=PSR2 /path/to/code-directory
If PHP_CodeSniffer finds any coding standard errors, a report will be shown after running the command.
Full usage information and example reports are available on the [usage page](https://github.com/squizlabs/PHP_CodeSniffer/wiki/Usage).
> NOTE: Backwards-compatible changes to the API used by sniff developers will allow an existing sniff to continue running without producing fatal errors but may not result in the sniff reporting the same errors as it did previously without changes being required.
The `PATCH` version is incremented when:
- backwards-compatible bug fixes are made
> NOTE: As PHP_CodeSniffer exists to report and fix issues, most bugs are the result of coding standard errors being incorrectly reported or coding standard errors not being reported when they should be. This means that the messages produced by PHP_CodeSniffer, and the fixes it makes, are likely to be different between PATCH versions.
