Visual Studio Code: Unable to locate phpcs

Question

I am facing this issue in Visual Studio Code. I have already tried reinstalling the phpcs extension but still facing this issue.

Unable to locate phpcs

Please add phpcs to your global path or use the composer dependency manager to install it in your project locally in Visual studio Code

score 114 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 28 '19 at 10:18

114

I had the same issue, I did the following to fix it:

Install the phpcs by using composer with composer global require squizlabs/php_codesniffer
Press Command + , (Click Code -> Preferences -> Settings)
Select User Settings and locate 'PHP CodeSniffer'
Scroll to 'Executatble Path' and put

/Users/your-username/.composer/vendor/bin/phpcs

This fixed the issue for me, I hope it does for you too. Cheers!

answered Apr 28 '19 at 10:18

Jekayode

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This work for me, you need had the packet 'php-xml' installed. And the 'Executatble Path' can change to: /Users/your-username/.config/composer/vendor/bin/phpcs – rodrigo Jun 18 '19 at 13:06
1

"phpcs.standard": "PSR2", "phpcs.enable": true, "php.validate.executablePath": "/usr/bin/php7.3", "phpcs.executablePath": "/home//.composer/vendor/squizlabs/php_codesniffer/bin/phpcs", "phpcs.autoConfigSearch": true, – Dhiraj Jan 26 '20 at 16:38
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Executatble path for those using Debian Linux or based on it: /home/your-user/.config/composer/vendor/squizlabs/php_codesniffer/bin/phpcs – Fellipe Sanches May 08 '20 at 19:03
I don't know what I did wrong but I had to use this path: /Users//AppData/Roaming/Composer/vendor/bin/phpcs – WENDYN May 30 '20 at 21:59
Worked on mac. Thank you. – Oscar Jul 21 '21 at 11:15
2

to find your phpcs location, type `where phpcs` in your cmd – Mahmoud Kassem Jul 31 '21 at 18:51

score 31 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 29 '18 at 16:41

31

open the project in the terminal and run this command

composer global require squizlabs/php_codesniffer

Hope that helps!

answered Mar 29 '18 at 16:41

Cengkuru Michael

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score 16 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 11 '17 at 06:11

16

I think uninstalling it does not solve the issue.

i had the same issue. So,

Go to extensions and install the plugin...."phpcs".
Search for the extension if you had install it.
Disable the extension.

it resolved the issue in my VS code.

answered Dec 11 '17 at 06:11

Kevin Mbugua

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score 15 · Answer 4 · answered Sep 24 '18 at 10:15

15

On Debian based systems run as root:

apt-get install php-codesniffer

answered Sep 24 '18 at 10:15

Moazzem Hossen

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Works for Ubuntu 18.04 also – SMJ Aug 06 '19 at 07:04

SandroMarques · Answer 5 · 2020-05-24T07:51:21.333

10

My solution without the need to install php_codesniffer globally.

Just go to VSCode settings and define the local path ./vendor/squizlabs/php_codesniffer/bin/phpcs

Or you can set the path directly in your settings.json

"phpcs.executablePath": "./vendor/squizlabs/php_codesniffer/bin/phpcs"

edited May 24 '20 at 07:51

answered Jun 11 '19 at 21:52

SandroMarques

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score 9 · Answer 6 · edited Nov 01 '18 at 11:15

9

From a GitHub comment.

If someone still needs help about this "Unable to locate phpcs ..." error message, try this: you just need to install phpcs globally via Composer.
Install Composer from this resource if you don't have it,
After Composer is installed, open a command prompt wherever you want and run this command
composer global require squizlabs/php_codesniffer

edited Nov 01 '18 at 11:15

Álvaro González

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answered Oct 31 '18 at 21:44

Karem Shawky

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score 7 · Answer 7 · answered Feb 05 '20 at 05:55

7

In my case and in Windows 10, composer located at:

C:\Users\{user_name}\AppData\Roaming\Composer\vendor\bin\

and when i added this to VSCode settings at PHP CodeSniffer section this solve my problem.

answered Feb 05 '20 at 05:55

alireza

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Didn't work on my **Windows 10** i had to add `phpcs` at the end like the following: `C:\Users\{user_name}\AppData\Roaming\Composer\vendor\bin\phpcs` – kuroyza May 06 '20 at 09:54
This is what worked for me. Files/Preferences/Settings. Search for PHP CodeSniffer. Add the path above to the executable path. – Ron Raney Apr 22 '21 at 02:44

score 3 · Answer 8 · edited Jan 16 '21 at 18:03

I had the same problem and i did this to fix it in my windows:

You will Download the Composer (From here)
Go to Vs code and open your terminal and run this command
```
composer global require squizlabs/php_codesniffer
```
Go to (settings--> User Settings), then search PHP CodeSniffer

Scroll to Executatble Path and type

\Users\{user_name}\AppData\Roaming\Composer\vendor\bin\phpcs

and restart VS code.

This works For me, I hope it Works for you too :D

score 1 · Answer 9 · edited Feb 27 '19 at 22:48

1

paste the following in your terminal for system-wide installation

composer global require squizlabs/php_codesniffer

This stopped the error message from popping up in mine.

edited Feb 27 '19 at 22:48

Mr.Web

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answered May 03 '18 at 02:13

Fusion Bolt

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Thanks for joining StackOverflow! Unfortunately, an identical answer to this one has already been posted. – Marcus Campbell May 03 '18 at 02:36

score 1 · Answer 10 · answered May 26 '19 at 17:04

Install PHP Sniffer instead of phpcs

PHP Sniffer worked on the fly without any extra configuration

phpcs could not recognize my commands, despite a configured PATH, Composer & PHPCS installed.

The commands were recognized in the terminal, but not by the plugin (under windows 10)

score 1 · Answer 11 · answered Jun 22 '20 at 19:47

I had this same error and I noticed that phpcs was working from the command line but not working in vscode. I had to read the linter.js file (of the vscode extension) to see where this error is coming from. This fix is more of an info.

So, to fix this: First, run the command phpcs --version and check if the command does not print any warning or error before outputting a line similar to PHP_CodeSniffer version x.x.x (stable) by Squiz (HTTP://www.squiz.net).

If any error or warning (usually unrelated to phpcs) is thrown before the line showing the phpcs version, please go fix that warning or error first. According to linter.js, it expects that the first output (when phpcs.bat is executed) must start with the PHP_CodeSniffer version string. Thus, If anything should print before the PHP_CodeSniffer version ...., then it throws the error.

So, You MUST fix any warning or error printed before the phpcs version if you want phpcs to work in VSCode. I hope this fix works for you. cheers!

score 1 · Answer 12 · answered Aug 13 '21 at 12:46

I struggled with all these answers and I think it may be confusing to someone who is new to composer on Windows 10

This gives you better understanding of paths and Windows Environment Variables settings. However, it also includes installing php7 and integration with cakephp which you might want to skip and focus on (Composer and phpcs)

I found the fix at https://www.bravo-kernel.com/2017/03/installing-php7-composer-and-codesniffer-on-windows10-for-vscode/

And it had everything I needed to get phpcs working perfectly.

PROCEEDURE:

Download Composer for Windows 10 Here
Install Composer on Windows 10

Open Command Prompt(cmd.exe) and type "composer" and hit the enter key (Just search the windows start for "cmd")

 Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.19042.1165]
 (c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

 C:\Users\systemuser>composer

If composer is properly installed you will get a response with something like this

       ______
      / ____/___  ____ ___  ____  ____  ________  _____
     / /   / __ \/ __ `__ \/ __ \/ __ \/ ___/ _ \/ ___/
    / /___/ /_/ / / / / / / /_/ / /_/ (__  )  __/ /
    \____/\____/_/ /_/ /_/ .___/\____/____/\___/_/
                /_/
    Composer version 2.1.5 2021-07-23 10:35:47

    Usage:
    command [options] [arguments]

    Options:
      -h, --help                     Display this help message
      -q, --quiet                    Do not output any message
      -V, --version                  Display this application version
      --ansi                     Force ANSI output
  --no-ansi                  Disable ANSI output
  -n, --no-interaction           Do not ask any interactive question
  --profile                  Display timing and memory usage information
  --no-plugins               Whether to disable plugins.
   -d, --working-dir=WORKING-DIR  If specified, use the given directory as 
    working directory.
    --no-cache                 Prevent use of the cache
   -v|vv|vvv, --verbose           Increase the verbosity of messages: 1 for 
    normal output, 2 for more verbose output and 3 for debug

    Available commands:
    (It continues)

If you do not intend to change the default directory you can now install phpcs otherwise you can use instructions from the link above to set a new executable path. The default composer directory is
```
 C:/Users/systemuser/AppData/Roaming/Composer
```

Now in Command prompt add the following command (Global installation):

    composer global require squizlabs/php_codesniffer

Here is what it will look like:

    C:\Users\systemuser>composer global require squizlabs/php_codesniffer
    Changed current directory to C:/Users/systemuser/AppData/Roaming/Composer
    Using version ^3.6 for squizlabs/php_codesniffer
    ./composer.json has been updated
    Running composer update squizlabs/php_codesniffer
    Loading composer repositories with package information
    Updating dependencies
    Nothing to modify in lock file
    Writing lock file
    Installing dependencies from lock file (including require-dev)
    Nothing to install, update or remove
    Generating autoload files

    C:\Users\systemuser>

Note: Nothing installed because I already installed phpcs. Also you can see that composer switched to the default directory, if this doesn't happen you need to navigate to the appropriate directory with "cd newpath" before installing phpcs:

    C:\Users\systemuser>cd AppData\Roaming\Composer

The result is:

    C:\Users\systemuser\AppData\Roaming\Composer>

You have completed the installation so verify the app path by navigating the path

$C:\Users\systemuser\AppData\Roaming\Composer\vendor\bin$

Now you can copy the link to the phpcs file and paste in VSCode (If you changed your composer bin path then you need to copy the appropriate directory). It should look like this

    C:\Users\sytemuser\AppData\Roaming\Composer\vendor\bin\phpcs

$C:\Users\systemuser\AppData\Roaming\Composer\vendor\bin\phpcs$

Now phpcs should work fine after installing the extension!

score 1 · Answer 13 · answered Feb 08 '23 at 10:42

For anyone else still struggling with this on Windows 11, I had to put double backslashes in the path, and link to the *.bat file instead (for both phpcs and phpcbf), in settings.json:

C:\\Users\\user-name\\AppData\\Roaming\\Composer\\vendor\\squizlabs\\php_codesniffer\\bin\\phpcs.bat

I had run all the global installation commands, etc, as described by all the other comments but still no joy in VS Code. I also tried without the phpcs filename (ie, just ending in \\bin), and ending in phpcs without the file extension, but those didn't work. I had also set the PATH to phpcs and phpcbf in my environment variables.

score 0 · Answer 14 · answered Dec 20 '17 at 17:39

I had the same issue on my Mac in Visual Studio Code (I used PEAR to install PHPCS). I do not know why but PHPCS couldn't find autoload.php of CodeSniffer. You can try to type on terminal command line:

$ phpcs

I got an error:

Warning: include_once(PHP/CodeSniffer/autoload.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /Users/david/pear/bin/phpcs on line 14

Warning: include_once(): Failed opening 'PHP/CodeSniffer/autoload.php' for inclusion (include_path='.:') in /Users/david/pear/bin/phpcs on line 14

Solution:

Open Pear Bin folder in your user folder, e.g. in my case: /Users/david/pear/bin/ in Finder,

Find phpcs file inside and edit it (e.g. in Visual Studio Code :),

You will find these lines there:

if (is_file(__DIR__.'/../autoload.php') === true) {
    include_once __DIR__.'/../autoload.php';
} else {
    include_once 'PHP/CodeSniffer/autoload.php';
}

Add two new lines there with the proper location of CodeSniffer/autoload.php file (place it before } else { line and modify the path according to your needs - replace "david" with your user name...):

} else if (is_file('/users/david/pear/share/pear/PHP/CodeSniffer/autoload.php')) {
    include_once '/users/david/pear/share/pear/PHP/CodeSniffer/autoload.php';

So the final code of the condition is:

if (is_file(__DIR__.'/../autoload.php') === true) {
    include_once __DIR__.'/../autoload.php';
} else if (is_file('/users/david/pear/share/pear/PHP/CodeSniffer/autoload.php')) {
    include_once '/users/david/pear/share/pear/PHP/CodeSniffer/autoload.php';
} else {
    include_once 'PHP/CodeSniffer/autoload.php';
}

Then save it and restart Visual Studio Code. That's it.

This looked promising but I still get an error. My phpcs will run on the CLI just not in VSCode. — Wrenbjor, Dec 27 '17 at 16:34

score 0 · Answer 15 · answered Dec 11 '19 at 18:40

0

I had the same problem with Drupal, the solutions is specify coding standards. So create phpcs.xml and enable the next options.

answered Dec 11 '19 at 18:40

maccevedor

155
2
5

score 0 · Answer 16 · edited Jun 08 '20 at 02:10

0

"phpcs.standard": "PSR2",
"phpcs.enable": true,
"phpcs.executablePath": "/home/<username>/.config/composer/vendor/squizlabs/php_codesniffer/bin/phpcs",
"phpcs.autoConfigSearch": true

edited Jun 08 '20 at 02:10

Jeremy Caney

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answered Jun 07 '20 at 23:42

budiono

1

score 0 · Answer 17 · answered Dec 27 '21 at 08:28

0

According to the best answer

In my case(in Windows 10), the composer located at:

C:\Users\user-name\AppData\Roaming\Composer\vendor\squizlabs\php_codesniffer\bin

answered Dec 27 '21 at 08:28

mohammad barzegar

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score 0 · Answer 18 · answered Aug 30 '22 at 19:00

Filling in the Executatble Path in VSCode settings for PHPCS will work if you have it installed through composer globally. You can also set it for individual project workspaces if you have a PHPCS configured for your project. To do that, create a workspace file through File->Save Workspace As and place this in your setting object:

"phpcs.enable": true,
"phpcs.standard": "WordPress", // or another standard
"phpcs.executablePath": "relative/path/to/vendor/bin/phpcs",
"phpcs.showWarnings": true,
"phpcs.composerJsonPath": "composer.json",
"phpcs.errorSeverity": 5,
"php.suggest.basic": true

Here is a link to a resource describing the process more in depth.

score -1 · Answer 19 · answered Apr 10 '18 at 19:21

You stated that you already uninstalled it, so i'm assuming your trying to get rid of the extension and error.

How to fix:

Uninstall extension.
Delete the entire phpcs folder from the VS Code folder.

From the VS Code Docs:

Q: Where are extensions installed?

A: Depending on your platform, the global location is in the following folders:

Windows %USERPROFILE%\.vscode\extensions

Mac ~/.vscode/extensions

Linux ~/.vscode/extensions

Visual Studio Code: Unable to locate phpcs

19 Answers19

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