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Perl-Critic-1.078
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/ perlcritic

NAME

perlcritic - Command-line interface to critique Perl source

SYNOPSIS

  perlcritic [-12345 | -brutal | -cruel | -harsh | -stern | -gentle]
             [-severity number | name] [-profile file | -noprofile]
             [-top [ number ]] [-theme expression] [-include pattern]
             [-exclude pattern] [-single-policy pattern] [-only | -noonly]
             [-profile-strictness {warn|fatal|quiet}] [-force | -noforce]
             [-statistics] [-statistics-only] [-verbose number | format]
             [-color | -nocolor] [-quiet] {FILE | DIRECTORY | STDIN}

  perlcritic -profile-proto

  perlcritic { -list | -doc pattern [...] }

  perlcritic { -help | -options | -man | -Version }

DESCRIPTION

perlcritic is a Perl source code analyzer. It is the executable front-end to the Perl::Critic engine, which attempts to identify awkward, hard to read, error-prone, or unconventional constructs in your code. Most of the rules are based on Damian Conway's book Perl Best Practices. However, perlcritic is not limited to enforcing PBP, and it will even support rules that contradict Conway. All rules can easily be configured or disabled to your liking.

If you want to integrate perlcritic with your build process, the Test::Perl::Critic module provides a nice interface that is suitable for test scripts. Also, Test::Perl::Critic::Progressive is useful for gradually applying coding standards to legacy code. For ultimate convenience (at the expense of some flexibility) see the criticism pragma.

Win32 and ActivePerl users can find PPM distributions of Perl::Critic at http://theoryx5.uwinnipeg.ca/ppms/.

If you'd like to try Perl::Critic without installing anything, there is a web-service available at http://perlcritic.com. The web-service does not yet support all the configuration features that are available in the native Perl::Critic API, but it should give you a good idea of what it does. You can also invoke the perlcritic web-service from the command-line by doing an HTTP-post, such as one of these:

  $> POST http://perlcritic.com/perl/critic.pl < MyModule.pm
  $> lwp-request -m POST http://perlcritic.com/perl/critic.pl < MyModule.pm
  $> wget -q -O - --post-file=MyModule.pm http://perlcritic.com/perl/critic.pl

Please note that the perlcritic web-service is still alpha code. The URL and interface to the service are subject to change.

USAGE EXAMPLES

Before getting into all the gory details, here are some basic usage examples to help get you started.

  #Report only most severe violations (severity = 5)
  perlcritic YourModule.pm

  #Same as above, but read input from STDIN
  perlcritic

  #Recursively process all Perl files beneath directory
  perlcritic /some/directory

  #Report slightly less severe violations too (severity >= 4)
  perlcritic -4 YourModule.pm

  #Same as above, but using named severity level
  perlcritic -stern YourModule.pm

  #Report all violations, regardless of severity (severity >= 1)
  perlcritic -1 YourModule.pm

  #Same as above, but using named severity level
  perlcritic -brutal YourModule.pm

  #Report only violations of things from "Perl Best Practices"
  perlcritic -theme pbp YourModule.pm

  #Report top 20 most severe violations (severity >= 1)
  perlcritic -top YourModule.pm

  #Report additional violations of Policies that match m/variables/ix
  perlcritic -include variables YourModule.pm

ARGUMENTS

The arguments are paths to the files you wish to analyze. You may specify multiple files. If an argument is a directory, perlcritic will analyze all Perl files below the directory. If no arguments are specified, then input is read from STDIN.

OPTIONS

Option names can be abbreviated to uniqueness and can be stated with singe or double dashes, and option values can be separated from the option name by a space or '=' (as with Getopt::Long). Option names are also case-sensitive.

-profile FILE

Directs perlcritic to use a profile named by FILE rather than looking for the default .perlcriticrc file in the current directory or your home directory. See "CONFIGURATION" for more information.

-noprofile

Directs perlcritic not to load any configuration file, thus reverting to the default configuration for all Policies.

-severity N

Directs perlcritic to only apply Policies with a severity greater than N. Severity values are integers ranging from 1 (least severe) to 5 (most severe). The default is 5. For a given -profile, decreasing the -severity will usually produce more violations. You can set the default value for this option in your .perlcriticrc file. You can also redefine the severity for any Policy in your .perlcriticrc file. See "CONFIGURATION" for more information.

-5 | -4 | -3 | -2 | -1

These are numeric shortcuts for setting the -severity option. For example, "-4" is equivalent to "-severity 4". If multiple shortcuts are specified, then the most restrictive one wins. If an explicit -severity option is also given, then all shortcut options are silently ignored. NOTE: Be careful not to put one of the number severity shortcut options immediately after the -top flag or perlcritic will interpret it as the number of violations to report.

-severity NAME

If it is difficult for you to remember whether severity "5" is the most or least restrictive level, then you can use one of these named values:

    SEVERITY NAME   ...is equivalent to...   SEVERITY NUMBER
    --------------------------------------------------------
    -severity gentle                             -severity 5
    -severity stern                              -severity 4
    -severity harsh                              -severity 3
    -severity cruel                              -severity 2
    -severity brutal                             -severity 1
-gentle | -stern | -harsh | -cruel | -brutal

These are named shortcuts for setting the -severity option. For example, "-cruel" is equivalent to "-severity 2". If multiple shortcuts are specified, then the most restrictive one wins. If an explicit -severity option is also given, then all shortcut options are silently ignored.

-theme RULE

Directs perlcritic to apply only Policies with themes that satisfy the RULE. Themes are arbitrary names for groups of related policies. You can combine theme names with boolean operators to create an arbitrarily complex RULE. For example, the following would apply only Policies that have a 'bugs' AND 'pbp' theme:

  $> perlcritic -theme='bugs && pbp' MyModule.pm

Unless the -severity option is explicitly given, setting -theme silently causes the -severity to be set to 1. You can set the default value for this option in your .perlcriticrc file. See the "POLICY THEMES" section for more information about themes.

-include PATTERN

Directs perlcritic to apply additional Policies that match the regex /PATTERN/imx. Use this option to temporarily override your profile and/or the severity settings at the command-line. For example:

  perlcritic -include=layout my_file.pl

This would cause perlcritic to apply all the CodeLayout::* policies even if they have a severity level that is less than the default level of 5, or have been disabled in your .perlcriticrc file. You can specify multiple -include options and you can use it in conjunction with the -exclude option. Note that -exclude takes precedence over -include when a Policy matches both patterns. You can set the default value for this option in your .perlcriticrc file.

-exclude PATTERN

Directs perlcritic to not apply any Policy that matches the regex /PATTERN/imx. Use this option to temporarily override your profile and/or the severity settings at the command-line. For example:

  perlcritic -exclude=strict my_file.pl

This would cause perlcritic to not apply the RequireUseStrict and ProhibitNoStrict Policies even though they have the highest severity level. You can specify multiple -exclude options and you can use it in conjunction with the -include option. Note that -exclude takes precedence over -include when a Policy matches both patterns. You can set the default value for this option in your .perlcriticrc file.

-single-policy PATTERN

Directs perlcritic to apply just one Policy module matching the regex /PATTERN/imx, and exclude all other Policies. This option has precedence over the -severity, -theme, -include, -exclude, and -only options. For example:

  perlcritic -single-policy=nowarnings my_file.pl

This would cause perlcritic to apply just the ProhibitNoWarnings Policy, regardless of the severity level setting. No other Policies would be applied.

This is equivalent to what one might intend by...

  perlcritic -exclude=. -include=nowarnings my_file.pl

...but this won't work because the -exclude option overrides the -include option.

The equivalent of this option can be accomplished by creating a custom profile containing only the desired policy and then running...

  perlcritic -profile=customprofile -only my_file.pl
-top [ N ]

Directs perlcritic to report only the top N Policy violations in each file, ranked by their severity. If N is not specified, it defaults to 20. If the -severity option (or one of the shortcuts) is not explicitly given, the -top option implies that the minimum severity level is "1" (i.e. "brutal"). Users can redefine the severity for any Policy in their .perlcriticrc file. See "CONFIGURATION" for more information. You can set the default value for this option in your .perlcriticrc file. NOTE: Be careful not to put one of the severity shortcut options immediately after the -top flag or perlcritic will interpret it as the number of violations to report.

-force

Directs perlcritic to ignore the magical "## no critic" pseudo-pragmas in the source code. See "BENDING THE RULES" for more information. You can set the default value for this option in your .perlcriticrc file.

-statistics

Causes several statistics about the code being scanned and the violations found to be reported after any other output.

-statistics-only

Like the -statistics option, but suppresses normal output and only shows the statistics.

-verbose N | FORMAT

Sets the verbosity level or format for reporting violations. If given a number (N), perlcritic reports violations using one of the predefined formats described below. If given a string (FORMAT), it is interpreted to be an actual format specification. If the -verbose option is not specified, it defaults to either 4 or 5, depending on whether multiple files were given as arguments to perlcritic. You can set the default value for this option in your .perlcriticrc file.

  Verbosity     Format Specification
  -----------   -------------------------------------------------------------
   1            "%f:%l:%c:%m\n",
   2            "%f: (%l:%c) %m\n",
   3            "%m at %f line %l\n",
   4            "%m at line %l, column %c.  %e.  (Severity: %s)\n",
   5            "%f: %m at line %l, column %c.  %e.  (Severity: %s)\n",
   6            "%m at line %l, near '%r'.  (Severity: %s)\n",
   7            "%f: %m at line %l near '%r'.  (Severity: %s)\n",
   8            "[%p] %m at line %l, column %c.  (Severity: %s)\n",
   9            "[%p] %m at line %l, near '%r'.  (Severity: %s)\n",
  10            "%m at line %l, column %c.\n  %p (Severity: %s)\n%d\n",
  11            "%m at line %l, near '%r'.\n  %p (Severity: %s)\n%d\n"

Formats are a combination of literal and escape characters similar to the way sprintf works. See String::Format for a full explanation of the formatting capabilities. Valid escape characters are:

  Escape    Meaning
  -------   ----------------------------------------------------------------
  %c        Column number where the violation occurred
  %d        Full diagnostic discussion of the violation
  %e        Explanation of violation or page numbers in PBP
  %F        Just the name of the file where the violation occurred.
  %f        Path to the file where the violation occurred.
  %l        Line number where the violation occurred
  %m        Brief description of the violation
  %P        Full name of the Policy module that created the violation
  %p        Name of the Policy without the Perl::Critic::Policy:: prefix
  %r        The string of source code that caused the violation
  %s        The severity level of the violation

The purpose of these formats is to provide some compatibility with text editors that have an interface for parsing certain kinds of input. See "EDITOR INTEGRATION" for more information about that.

-list

Displays a condensed listing of all the Perl::Critic::Policy modules that are found on this machine. For each Policy, the name, default severity and default themes are shown.

-profile-proto

Displays an expanded listing of all the Perl::Critic::Policy modules that are found on this machine. For each Policy, the name, default severity and default themes are shown, as well as the name of any additional parameters that the Policy supports. The format is suitable as a prototype for your .perlcriticrc file.

-only

Directs perlcritic to apply only Policies that are explicitly mentioned in your .perlcriticrc file. This is useful if you want to use just a small subset of Policies without having to disable all the others. You can set the default value for this option in your .perlcriticrc file.

-profile-strictness {warn|fatal|quiet}

Directs perlcritic how to treat certain recoverable problems found in a .perlcriticrc or file specified via the -profile option. Valid values are warn (the default), fatal, and quiet. For example, perlcritic normally only warns about profiles referring to non-existent Policies, but this option can make this situation fatal. You can set the default value for this option in your .perlcriticrc file.

-count
-C

Display only the number of violations for each file. Use this feature to get a quick handle on where a large pile of code might need the most attention.

-Safari

Report "Perl Best Practice" citations as section numbers from http://safari.oreilly.com instead of page numbers from the actual book. NOTE: This feature is not implemented yet.

-color

This option is on by default. When set, Severity 5 and 4 are colored red and yellow, respectively. Colorization only happens if STDOUT is a tty and Term::ANSIColor is installed. And it only works on non-Windows environments. Negate this switch to disable color. You can set the default value for this option in your .perlcriticrc file.

-doc PATTERN

Displays the perldoc for all Perl::Critic::Policy modules that match m/PATTERN/imx. Since Policy modules tend to have rather long names, this just provides a more convenient way to say something like: "perldoc Perl::Critic::Policy::ValuesAndExpressions::RequireUpperCaseHeredocTerminator" at the command prompt.

-quiet

Suppress the "source OK" message when no violations are found.

-help
-?
-H

Displays a brief summary of options and exits.

-options

Displays the descriptions of the options and exits. While this output is long, it it nowhere near the length of the output of -man.

-man

Displays the complete perlcritic manual and exits.

-Version
-V

Displays the version number of perlcritic and exits.

CONFIGURATION

Most of the settings for Perl::Critic and each of the Policy modules can be controlled by a configuration file. The default configuration file is called .perlcriticrc. perlcritic will look for this file in the current directory first, and then in your home directory. Alternatively, you can set the PERLCRITIC environment variable to explicitly point to a different file in another location. If none of these files exist, and the -profile option is not given on the command-line, then all Policies will be loaded with their default configuration.

The format of the configuration file is a series of INI-style blocks that contain key-value pairs separated by "=". Comments should start with "#" and can be placed on a separate line or after the name-value pairs if you desire.

Default settings for perlcritic itself can be set before the first named block. For example, putting any or all of these at the top of your .perlcriticrc file will set the default value for the corresponding command-line argument.

  severity  = 3                                     #Integer or named level
  only      = 1                                     #Zero or One
  force     = 0                                     #Zero or One
  verbose   = 4                                     #Integer or format spec
  top       = 50                                    #A positive integer
  theme     = (pbp + security) * bugs               #A theme expression
  include   = NamingConventions ClassHierarchies    #Space-delimited list
  exclude   = Variables  Modules::RequirePackage    #Space-delimited list

The remainder of the configuration file is a series of blocks like this:

  [Perl::Critic::Policy::Category::PolicyName]
  severity = 1
  set_themes = foo bar
  add_themes = baz
  arg1 = value1
  arg2 = value2

Perl::Critic::Policy::Category::PolicyName is the full name of a module that implements the policy. The Policy modules distributed with Perl::Critic have been grouped into categories according to the table of contents in Damian Conway's book Perl Best Practices. For brevity, you can omit the 'Perl::Critic::Policy' part of the module name.

severity is the level of importance you wish to assign to the Policy. All Policy modules are defined with a default severity value ranging from 1 (least severe) to 5 (most severe). However, you may disagree with the default severity and choose to give it a higher or lower severity, based on your own coding philosophy. You can set the severity to an integer from 1 to 5, or use one of the equivalent names:

  SEVERITY NAME ...is equivalent to... SEVERITY NUMBER
  ----------------------------------------------------
  gentle                                             5
  stern                                              4
  harsh                                              3
  cruel                                              2
  brutal                                             1

set_themes sets the theme for the Policy and overrides its default theme. The argument is a string of one or more whitespace-delimited alphanumeric words. Themes are case-insensitive. See "POLICY THEMES" for more information.

add_themes appends to the default themes for this Policy. The argument is a string of one or more whitespace-delimited words. Themes are case-insensitive. See "POLICY THEMES" for more information.

The remaining key-value pairs are configuration parameters that will be passed into the constructor of that Policy. The constructors for most Policy modules do not support arguments, and those that do should have reasonable defaults. See the documentation on the appropriate Policy module for more details.

Instead of redefining the severity for a given Policy, you can completely disable a Policy by prepending a '-' to the name of the module in your configuration file. In this manner, the Policy will never be loaded, regardless of the -severity given on the command line.

A simple configuration might look like this:

  #--------------------------------------------------------------
  # I think these are really important, so always load them

  [TestingAndDebugging::RequireUseStrict]
  severity = 5

  [TestingAndDebugging::RequireUseWarnings]
  severity = 5

  #--------------------------------------------------------------
  # I think these are less important, so only load when asked

  [Variables::ProhibitPackageVars]
  severity = 2

  [ControlStructures::ProhibitPostfixControls]
  allow = if unless  # My custom configuration
  severity = cruel   # Same as "severity = 2"

  #--------------------------------------------------------------
  # Give these policies a custom theme.  I can activate just
  # these policies by saying "perlcritic -theme 'larry || curly'"

  [Modules::RequireFilenameMatchesPackage]
  add_themes = larry

  [TestingAndDebugging::RequireTestLabels]
  add_themes = curly moe

  #--------------------------------------------------------------
  # I do not agree with these at all, so never load them

  [-NamingConventions::ProhibitMixedCaseVars]
  [-NamingConventions::ProhibitMixedCaseSubs]

  #--------------------------------------------------------------
  # For all other Policies, I accept the default severity,
  # so no additional configuration is required for them.

For additional configuration examples, see the perlcriticrc file that is included in this examples directory of this distribution.

Damian Conway's own Perl::Critic configuration is also included in this distribution as examples/perlcriticrc-conway.

THE POLICIES

A large number of Policy modules are distributed with Perl::Critic. They are described briefly in the companion document Perl::Critic::PolicySummary and in more detail in the individual modules themselves. Say "perlcritic -doc PATTERN" to see the perldoc for all Policy modules that match the regex m/PATTERN/imx

There are a number of distributions of additional policies on CPAN. If Perl::Critic doesn't contain a policy that you want, some one may have already written it. See "SEE ALSO" in Perl::Critic for a list of some of these distributions.

POLICY THEMES

Each Policy is defined with one or more "themes". Themes can be used to create arbitrary groups of Policies. They are intended to provide an alternative mechanism for selecting your preferred set of Policies. For example, you may wish disable a certain set of Policies when analyzing test scripts. Conversely, you may wish to enable only a specific subset of Policies when analyzing modules.

The Policies that ship with Perl::Critic are have been divided into the following themes. This is just our attempt to provide some basic logical groupings. You are free to invent new themes that suit your needs.

  THEME             DESCRIPTION
  --------------------------------------------------------------------------
  core              All policies that ship with Perl::Critic
  pbp               Policies that come directly from "Perl Best Practices"
  bugs              Policies that that prevent or reveal bugs
  maintenance       Policies that affect the long-term health of the code
  cosmetic          Policies that only have a superficial effect
  complexity        Policies that specificaly relate to code complexity
  security          Policies that relate to security issues
  tests             Policies that are specific to test scripts

Say "perlcritic -list" to get a listing of all available policies and the themes that are associated with each one. You can also change the theme for any Policy in your .perlcriticrc file. See the "CONFIGURATION" section for more information about that.

Using the -theme command-line option, you can create an arbitrarily complex rule that determines which Policies to apply. Precedence is the same as regular Perl code, and you can use parens to enforce precedence as well. Supported operators are:

  Operator    Altertative    Example
  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  &&          and            'pbp && core'
  ||          or             'pbp || (bugs && security)'
  !           not            'pbp && ! (portability || complexity)'

Theme names are case-insensitive. If the -theme is set to an empty string, then it evaluates as true all Policies.

BENDING THE RULES

Perl::Critic takes a hard-line approach to your code: either you comply or you don't. In the real world, it is not always practical (or even possible) to fully comply with coding standards. In such cases, it is wise to show that you are knowingly violating the standards and that you have a Damn Good Reason (DGR) for doing so.

To help with those situations, you can direct Perl::Critic to ignore certain lines or blocks of code by using pseudo-pragmas:

  require 'LegacyLibaray1.pl';  ## no critic
  require 'LegacyLibrary2.pl';  ## no critic

  for my $element (@list) {

      ## no critic

      $foo = "";               #Violates 'ProhibitEmptyQuotes'
      $barf = bar() if $foo;   #Violates 'ProhibitPostfixControls'
      #Some more evil code...

      ## use critic

      #Some good code...
      do_something($_);
  }

The "## no critic" comments direct Perl::Critic to ignore the remaining lines of code until the end of the current block, or until a "## use critic" comment is found (whichever comes first). If the "## no critic" comment is on the same line as a code statement, then only that line of code is overlooked. To direct perlcritic to ignore the "## no critic" comments, use the -force option.

A bare "## no critic" comment disables all the active Policies. If you wish to disable only specific Policies, add a list of Policy names as arguments just as you would for the "no strict" or "no warnings" pragma. For example, this would disable the ProhibitEmptyQuotes and ProhibitPostfixControls policies until the end of the block or until the next "## use critic" comment (whichever comes first):

  ## no critic (EmptyQuotes, PostfixControls);

  # Now exempt from ValuesAndExpressions::ProhibitEmptyQuotes
  $foo = "";

  # Now exempt ControlStructures::ProhibitPostfixControls
  $barf = bar() if $foo;

  # Still subject to ValuesAndExpression::RequireNumberSeparators
  $long_int = 10000000000;

Since the Policy names are matched against the "## no critic" arguments as regular expressions, you can abbreviate the Policy names or disable an entire family of Policies in one shot like this:

  ## no critic (NamingConventions)

  # Now exempt from NamingConventions::ProhibitMixedCaseVars
  my $camelHumpVar = 'foo';

  # Now exempt from NamingConventions::ProhibitMixedCaseSubs
  sub camelHumpSub {}

The argument list must be enclosed in parens and must contain one or more comma-separated barewords (i.e. don't use quotes). The "## no critic" pragmas can be nested, and Policies named by an inner pragma will be disabled along with those already disabled an outer pragma.

Some Policies like Subroutines::ProhibitExcessComplexity apply to an entire block of code. In those cases, "## no critic" must appear on the line where the violation is reported. For example:

  sub complicated_function {  ## no critic (ProhibitExcessComplexity)
      # Your code here...
  }

Some Policies like Documentation::RequirePodSections apply to the entire document, in which case violations are reported at line 1. But if the file requires a shebang line, it is impossible to put "## no critic" on the first line of the file. This is a known limitation and it will be addressed in a future release. As a workaround, you can disable the affected policies at the command-line or in your .perlcriticrc file. But beware that this will affect the analysis of all files.

Use this feature wisely. "## no critic" should be used in the smallest possible scope, or only on individual lines of code. And you should always be as specific as possible about which policies you want to disable (i.e. never use a bare "## no critic"). If Perl::Critic complains about your code, try and find a compliant solution before resorting to this feature.

IMPORTANT CHANGES

Perl-Critic is evolving rapidly. As such, some of the interfaces have changed in ways that are not backward-compatible. If you have been using an older version of Perl-Critic and/or you have been developing custom Policy modules, please read this section carefully.

VERSION 1.xxx

The "-profileproto" and "-singlepolicy" options have been renamed to "-profile-proto" and "-single-policy" in order to make the growing number of command-line options comprehensible. The change of "singlepolicy" also affects your .perlcriticrc file.

VERSION 0.23

In version 0.23, the syntax for theme rules changed. The mathematical operators ( "*", "+", "-" ) are no longer supported. You must use logical operators instead ( "&&", "!", "||" ). However the meanings of these operators is effectively the same. See "POLICY THEMES" for more details.

VERSION 0.21

In version 0.21, we introduced the concept of policy "themes". All you existing custom Policies should still be compatible. But to take advantage of the theme feature, you should add a default_themes method to your custom Policy modules. See Perl::Critic::DEVELOPER for an up-to-date guide on creating Policy modules.

VERSION 0.16

Starting in version 0.16, you can add a list Policy names as arguments to the "## no critic" pseudo-pragma. This feature allows you to disable specific policies. So if you have been in the habit of adding additional words after "no critic", then those words might cause unexpected results. If you want to append other stuff to the "## no critic" comment, then terminate the pseudo-pragma with a semi-colon, and then start another comment. For example:

  #This may not work as expected.
  $email = 'foo@bar.com';  ## no critic for literal '@'

  #This will work.
  $email = 'foo@bar.com';  ## no critic; #for literal '@'

  #This is even better.
  $email = 'foo@bar.com'; ## no critic (RequireInterpolation);

VERSION 0.14

Starting in version 0.14, the interface to Perl::Critic::Violation changed. This will also break any custom Policy modules that you might have written for earlier modules. See Perl::Critic::DEVELOPER for an up-to-date guide on creating Policy modules.

The notion of "priority" was also replaced with "severity" in version 0.14. Consequently, the default behavior of Perl::Critic is to only load the most "severe" Policy modules, rather than loading all of them. This decision was based on user-feedback suggesting that Perl-Critic should be less "critical" for new users, and should steer them toward gradually increasing the strictness as they adopt better coding practices.

VERSION 0.11

Starting in version 0.11, the internal mechanics of Perl-Critic were rewritten so that only one traversal of the PPI document tree is required. Unfortunately, this will break any custom Policy modules that you might have written for earlier versions. Converting your policies to work with the new version is pretty easy and actually results in cleaner code. See Perl::Critic::DEVELOPER for an up-to-date guide on creating Policy modules.

EDITOR INTEGRATION

For ease-of-use, perlcritic can be integrated with your favorite text editor. The output-formatting capabilities of perlcritic are specifically intended for use with the "grep" or "compile" modes available in editors like emacs and vim. In these modes, you can run an arbitrary command and the editor will parse the output into an interactive buffer that you can click on and jump to the relevant line of code.

The Perl::Critic team thanks everyone who has helped integrate Perl-Critic with their favorite editor. Your contributions in particular have made Perl-Critic a convenient and user-friendly tool for Perl developers of all stripes. We sincerely appreciate your hard work.

EMACS

Joshua ben Jore has authored a minor-mode for emacs that allows you to run perlcritic on the current region or buffer. You can run it on demand, or configure it to run automatically when you save the buffer. The output appears in a hot-linked compiler buffer. The code and installation instructions can be found in the extras directory inside this distribution.

VIM

Scott Peshak has published perlchecker.vim, which is available at http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=1731.

gVIM

Fritz Mehner recently added support for perlcritic to his fantastic gVIM plugin. In addition to providing a very Perlish IDE, Fritz's plugin enables one-click access to perlcritic and many other very useful utilities. And all is seamlessly integrated into the editor. See http://lug.fh-swf.de/vim/vim-perl/screenshots-en.html for complete details.

EPIC

EPIC is an open source Perl IDE based on the Eclipse platform. Features supported are syntax highlighting, on-the-fly syntax check, content assist, perldoc support, source formatter, templating support and a Perl debugger. Go to http://e-p-i-c.sourceforge.net for more information about EPIC.

The EPIC team is currently working on integration with Perl::Critic. In the meantime, you can use the criticism pragma and EPIC will highlight violations whenever it does a syntax check on your code. I haven't tried this myself, but other folks say it works.

BBEdit

Josh Clark has produced an excellent Perl-Critic plugin for BBEdit. A copy is included in this distribution at extras/perl_critic_for_bbedit-1_0.zip. See http://beta.bigmedium.com/projects/bbedit-perl-critic/index.shtml for screenshots and additional installation info. Apple users rejoice!

Komodo

Komodo is a proprietary IDE for Perl and several other dynamic languages. Free trial copies of Komodo can be obtained from the ActiveState website at http://www.activestate.com. For instructions on integrating perlcritic with Komodo, see extras/KomodoIntegration.pod in this distribution.

EXIT STATUS

If perlcritic has any errors itself, exits with status == 1. If there are no errors, but perlcritic finds Policy violations in your source code, exits with status == 2. If there were no errors and no violations were found, exits with status == 0.

THE Perl::Critic PHILOSOPHY

    Coding standards are deeply personal and highly subjective. The goal of Perl::Critic is to help you write code that conforms with a set of best practices. Our primary goal is not to dictate what those practices are, but rather, to implement the practices discovered by others. Ultimately, you make the rules -- Perl::Critic is merely a tool for encouraging consistency. If there is a policy that you think is important or that we have overlooked, we would be very grateful for contributions, or you can simply load your own private set of policies into Perl::Critic.

EXTENDING THE CRITIC

The modular design of Perl::Critic is intended to facilitate the addition of new Policies. You'll need to have some understanding of PPI, but most Policy modules are pretty straightforward and only require about 20 lines of code, and half of those lines are simple use statements and simple declarations.. Please see the Perl::Critic::DEVELOPER file included in this distribution for a step-by-step demonstration of how to create new Policy modules.

If you develop any new Policy modules, feel free to send them to <thaljef@cpan.org> and I'll be happy to put them into the Perl::Critic distribution. Or if you would like to work on the Perl::Critic project directly, check out our repository at http://perlcritic.tigris.org. To subscribe to our mailing list, send a message to <dev-subscribe@perlcritic.tigris.org>.

The Perl::Critic team is also available for hire. If your organization has its own coding standards, we can create custom Policies to enforce your local guidelines. Or if your code base is prone to a particular defect pattern, we can design Policies that will help you catch those costly defects before they go into production. To discuss your needs with the Perl::Critic team, just contact <thaljef@cpan.org>.

CONTACTING THE DEVELOPMENT TEAM

You are encouraged to subscribe to the mailing list; send a message to <users-subscribe@perlcritic.tigris.org>. See also the archives. You can also contact the author at <thaljef@cpan.org>.

At least one member of the development team has started hanging around in irc://irc.perl.org/#perlcritic.

SEE ALSO

There are a number of distributions of additional Policies available. A few are listed here:

Perl::Critic::More Perl::Critic::Bangs Perl::Critic::Lax Perl::Critic::StricterSubs Perl::Critic::Swift

These distributions enable you to use Perl::Critic in your unit tests:

Test::Perl::Critic Test::Perl::Critic::Progressive

There are also a couple of distributions that will install all the Perl::Critic related modules known to the development team:

Bundle::Perl::Critic Task::Perl::Critic

BUGS

Scrutinizing Perl code is hard for humans, let alone machines. If you find any bugs, particularly false-positives or false-negatives from a Perl::Critic::Policy, please submit them to http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/Bugs.html?Dist=Perl-Critic. Thanks.

Most policies will produce false-negatives if they cannot understand a particular block of code.

CREDITS

Adam Kennedy - For creating PPI, the heart and soul of Perl::Critic.

Damian Conway - For writing Perl Best Practices, finally :)

Chris Dolan - For contributing the best features and Policy modules.

Andy Lester - Wise sage and master of all-things-testing.

Elliot Shank - The self-proclaimed quality freak.

Giuseppe Maxia - For all the great ideas and positive encouragement.

and Sharon, my wife - For putting up with my all-night code sessions.

AUTHOR

Jeffrey Ryan Thalhammer <thaljef@cpan.org>

COPYRIGHT

Copyright (c) 2005-2007 Jeffrey Ryan Thalhammer. All rights reserved.

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. The full text of this license can be found in the LICENSE file included with this module.