How to Use the Command 'drupal-check' (with examples)

‘drupal-check’ is a command-line tool designed to help developers maintain and upgrade their Drupal projects. It provides a way to check PHP code within Drupal projects for deprecated functions and practices, ensuring that the code is compatible with newer versions of Drupal. Moreover, it offers static analysis to detect potential flaws and bad coding practices, ultimately contributing to higher code quality and faster development cycle readiness.

Use case 1: Check the code in a specific directory for deprecations

Code:

drupal-check path/to/directory

Motivation: As you continue developing your Drupal project, it’s easy to incorporate functions or practices that may become deprecated in future releases. Running a quick check using ‘drupal-check’ on your codebase’s directory can preemptively identify these potential issues, thus saving time during future upgrades and ensuring your application remains functional and secure.

Explanation:

• drupal-check: This invokes the tool to begin examining your code for any deprecated API usages.
• path/to/directory: This specifies the particular directory that you want the tool to check. It’s your target project directory containing the PHP code relevant to your Drupal project.

Example Output:

Checking directory...
File "example.module" uses deprecated function "hook_init()".
1 deprecation found.

Use case 2: Check the code excluding a comma-separated list of directories

Code:

drupal-check --exclude-dir path/to/excluded_directory,path/to/excluded_files/*.php path/to/directory

Motivation: In some cases, you might have third-party libraries or specific directories that you know are not relevant or are intentionally left out from deprecation checks. This functionality is especially useful for reducing noise and focusing the check on your core code by excluding unnecessary paths.

Explanation:

• --exclude-dir: This is an option to specify directories or files you want to exclude from the deprecation check.
• path/to/excluded_directory,path/to/excluded_files/*.php: This is a comma-separated list of directories and/or files to be ignored during the check.
• path/to/directory: As before, this is the directory you wish to inspect for deprecations.

Example Output:

Excluding directories: path/to/excluded_directory, path/to/excluded_files/*.php
Checking directory...
File "another_example.module" uses deprecated function "hook_exit()".
1 deprecation found.

Use case 3: Don’t show a progress bar

Code:

drupal-check --no-progress path/to/directory

Motivation: In some situations, such as in auto-scripts or during logging, you might want to avoid cluttered output, including unwanted progress bars. Suppressing the progress output allows for cleaner, more streamlined logs, making automated processes more efficient.

Explanation:

• --no-progress: This flag instructs the command not to display the progress bar during execution.
• path/to/directory: This remains the directory that you wish to check for deprecated code.

Example Output:

Checking directory...
No deprecations found.

Use case 4: Perform static analysis to detect bad coding practices

Code:

drupal-check --analysis path/to/directory

Motivation: Static analysis is a powerful technique for enhancing code quality by identifying issues that are not necessarily deprecated but represent poor coding practices or potential issues. This feature assists developers in writing robust and efficient code, reducing errors and increasing maintainability.

Explanation:

• --analysis: When this option is included, ‘drupal-check’ goes beyond deprecation detection and performs a comprehensive analysis to find coding issues.
• path/to/directory: Once again, this specifies the directory containing the target Drupal PHP code for analysis.

Example Output:

Performing static analysis on directory...
File "sample.module" has a function with high cyclomatic complexity.
File "example.module" contains an unused local variable.
2 issues found.

Conclusion:

The ‘drupal-check’ command is a versatile tool in a Drupal developer’s toolbox, providing essential insights into potential deprecation issues and coding inefficiencies. By helping developers catch these issues early, ‘drupal-check’ ensures the smoother upgrading of Drupal sites and contributes to cleaner, more efficient codebases. Whether it’s excluding certain directories, managing output verbosity, or performing in-depth code analysis, ‘drupal-check’ covers a range of needs to keep your Drupal projects robust and future-proof.