1About
2-----
3
4PHP\_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.
5
6[![Build Status](https://travis-ci.org/squizlabs/PHP_CodeSniffer.svg?branch=phpcs-fixer)](https://travis-ci.org/squizlabs/PHP_CodeSniffer) [![Code consistency](http://squizlabs.github.io/PHP_CodeSniffer/analysis/squizlabs/PHP_CodeSniffer/grade.svg)](http://squizlabs.github.io/PHP_CodeSniffer/analysis/squizlabs/PHP_CodeSniffer)
7
8[![Join the chat at https://gitter.im/squizlabs/PHP_CodeSniffer](https://badges.gitter.im/Join%20Chat.svg)](https://gitter.im/squizlabs/PHP_CodeSniffer?utm_source=badge&utm_medium=badge&utm_campaign=pr-badge&utm_content=badge)
9
10Requirements
11------------
12
13PHP\_CodeSniffer requires PHP version 5.1.2 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.
14
15The SVN pre-commit hook requires PHP version 5.2.4 or greater due to its use of the vertical whitespace character.
16
17Installation
18------------
19
20The easiest way to get started with PHP\_CodeSniffer is to download the [Phar](http://php.net/manual/en/intro.phar.php) files for each of the commands:
21
22    curl -OL https://squizlabs.github.io/PHP_CodeSniffer/phpcs.phar
23    php phpcs.phar -h
24
25    curl -OL https://squizlabs.github.io/PHP_CodeSniffer/phpcbf.phar
26    php phpcbf.phar -h
27
28If 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:
29
30    pear install PHP_CodeSniffer
31
32If you prefer using [Composer](http://getcomposer.org/) you can easily install PHP_CodeSniffer system-wide with the following command:
33
34    composer global require "squizlabs/php_codesniffer=*"
35
36Make 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`.
37
38Or alternatively, include a dependency for `squizlabs/php_codesniffer` in your `composer.json` file. For example:
39
40```json
41{
42    "require-dev": {
43        "squizlabs/php_codesniffer": "2.*"
44    }
45}
46```
47
48You will then be able to run PHP_CodeSniffer from the vendor bin directory:
49
50    ./vendor/bin/phpcs -h
51    ./vendor/bin/phpcbf -h
52
53You can also download the PHP\_CodeSniffer source and run the `phpcs` and `phpcbf` commands directly from the Git clone:
54
55    git clone https://github.com/squizlabs/PHP_CodeSniffer.git
56    cd PHP_CodeSniffer
57    php scripts/phpcs -h
58    php scripts/phpcbf -h
59
60Documentation
61-------------
62
63The documentation for PHP\_CodeSniffer is available on the [Github wiki](https://github.com/squizlabs/PHP_CodeSniffer/wiki).
64
65Information about upcoming features and releases is available on the [Squiz Labs blog](http://www.squizlabs.com/php-codesniffer).
66
67Issues
68------
69
70Bug reports and feature requests can be submitted on the [Github Issue Tracker](https://github.com/squizlabs/PHP_CodeSniffer/issues) or the [PEAR bug tracker](http://pear.php.net/package/PHP_CodeSniffer/bugs).
71
72Contributing
73-------------
74
75See [CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md) for information.
76