4

I'm attempting to build an auditing feature into my application that will check for various code quality issues.

One of the things I would like to do is check certain PHP files for syntax errors. I was going to use php_check_syntax() but it has been removed in PHP 5.0.5.

I've tried using exec() statements but it isn't outputting anything. I've added a date to make sure exec() is working:

<?php

error_reporting(E_ALL | E_NOTICE | E_STRICT | E_WARNING);
ini_set('display_errors', 1);

$output = 'before';
var_dump($output);
var_dump(exec('php -l ' . __FILE__, $output));
var_dump($output);
var_dump(exec('date', $output));
var_dump($output);

Output:

string 'before' (length=6)
string '' (length=0)
array (size=0)
  empty
string 'Thu Feb  6 10:42:35 PST 2014' (length=28)
array (size=1)
  0 => string 'Thu Feb  6 10:42:35 PST 2014' (length=28)

How can I check a PHP file for syntax errors in PHP?

Steve Robbins
  • 13,672
  • 12
  • 76
  • 124
  • 2
    Did you check the command directly first? (To make sure the path is correct, and that the php command works correctly) – John V. Feb 06 '14 at 02:02
  • Make sure you're validating that path correctly. – Ryan Feb 06 '14 at 02:16
  • The path is correct and the command works in terminal. I've tried `/usr/bin/php` as well – Steve Robbins Feb 06 '14 at 02:32
  • 1
    check php error logs and add the following to the top of php file `error_reporting(E_ALL | E_NOTICE | E_STRICT | E_WARNING);` `@ini_set('display_errors', 1);` – xzag Feb 06 '14 at 10:48
  • if it is working from the terminal and not through your web server, be sure that exec is enabled. Maybe you are running in safe mode? – Yann Sagon Feb 06 '14 at 10:57
  • `exec()` is working. I've updated my question with a better test case. – Steve Robbins Feb 06 '14 at 18:43
  • `php -l` _will_ give you a proper return value which indicates good or bad... Try it on a broken file, and make sure you use `exec`'s `$return_var`. – Wrikken Feb 06 '14 at 18:47

4 Answers4

2

check web-server configuration. places like this: disable_functions="". after var_dump($output) starts to return an array check for errors in array to eliminate further errors like correct path to php.

use this to eliminate some other possibilities:

$output="just before exec";
var_dump($output);
exec('php -l /path/to/file.php', $output);
var_dump($output);

p.s. may be used like 

echo exec('php -l /path/to/file.php');

Upd: Updated question shows exec works. It may be your *nix like platform hides the error output. a way to redirect it to add to the command 2>&1 it will redirect error output into standard output

$to_run = '/path/to/bin/php -l /path/to/file 2>&1';
$output ="" ; //init
var_dump(exec($to_run, $output));

if you have root access on the platform you may even use tools like strace to debug some complicated cases.

'/path/to/bin/strace -o/path/to/strace.log php -l /path/to/file.php'

UPD: var_dump(exec('php -l ' . FILE .' 2>&1', $output)); // error redirection for a unix platform

Konstantin Ivanov
  • 400
  • 2
  • 7
1

To check many php files, you can save this code as a batch file and execute it:

echo php files error check report >output.txt
for /r %%i in (*.php) do ( echo. & php -l %%i  )  >>output.txt
start "" "output.txt"

Save it as "check.bat" (for example) in the php files directory and execute it.

Behiry
  • 575
  • 5
  • 20
1

Here's a Unix bash script you could use to syntax check all .php files in folder and subfolder:

find . -iname '*.php' -exec php -l '{}' \; | grep '^No syntax errors' -v  | less

Source: https://gist.github.com/Fake51/865603

eduardomozart
  • 1,444
  • 15
  • 14
0

You can do that with lint running PHP with the -l parameter on the command line:

test.php:

<?php
phpinfo()

result:

$ php -l test.php
PHP Parse error:  syntax error, unexpected end of file in test.php on line 2
Parse error: syntax error, unexpected end of file in test.php on line 2
Errors parsing test.php

test.php

<?php
phpinfo();

result:

$ php -l test.php
No syntax errors detected in test.php
automatix
  • 14,018
  • 26
  • 105
  • 230