Using PHP_CodeSniffer in an SVN pre-commit hook

I've just commit a new script to PHP_CodeSniffer called phpcs-svn-pre-commit. It sits in the scripts dir with phpcs and phpcs.bat. This script was contributed by Jake Bates, who has also volunteered to maintain the Debian package, and will be available in the 1.1.0 release.

Using the script is pretty easy, but you'll need to modify it slightly.

Edit /path/to/PHP_CodeSniffer/scripts/phpcs-svn-pre-commit and replace @php_bin@ in the first line with the path to the PHP CLI. For example,

#!@php_bin@

becomes

#!/usr/bin/php

Then, ensure the path to svnlook is correct by modifying the line:

define('PHP_CODESNIFFER_SVNLOOK', '/usr/bin/svnlook');

Now, add the following line to your pre-commit file in the SVN hooks directory:

/.../phpcs-svn-pre-commit "$REPOS" -t "$TXN" >&2 || exit 1

This will cause the SVN commit to fail if PHP_CodeSniffer finds any errors. The error report will be displayed to the user so they can fix errors before attempting the commit again.

You can also use all the standard phpcs command line options to do things like set the standard to use, the tab width and the error report format:

/.../phpcs-svn-pre-commit --standard=Squiz --tab-width=4 ...

And some example output:

$ svn commit -m "Test" temp.php
Sending        temp.php
Transmitting file data .svn: Commit failed (details follow):
svn: 'pre-commit' hook failed with error output:

FILE: temp.php
---------------------------------------------------------------
FOUND 1 ERROR(S) AND 0 WARNING(S) AFFECTING 1 LINE(S)
---------------------------------------------------------------
 2 | ERROR | Missing file doc comment
---------------------------------------------------------------