Provided by: libperl-critic-perl_1.152-1_all 
NAME
"perlcritic" - Command-line interface to critique Perl source.
SYNOPSIS
perlcritic [-12345 | --brutal | --cruel | --harsh | --stern | --gentle]
[--severity number | name] [{-p | --profile} file | --noprofile]
[--top [ number ]] [--theme expression] [--include pattern]
[--exclude pattern] [{-s | --single-policy} pattern]
[--only | --noonly] [--profile-strictness {warn|fatal|quiet}]
[--force | --noforce] [--statistics] [--statistics-only]
[--count | -C] [--verbose {number | format}] [--allow-unsafe]
[--color | --nocolor] [--pager pager] [--quiet]
[--color-severity-highest color_specification]
[--color-severity-high color_specification]
[--color-severity-medium color_specification]
[--color-severity-low color_specification]
[--color-severity-lowest color_specification]
[--files-with-violations | -l]
[--files-without-violations | -L]
[--program-extensions file_name_extension]
{FILE | DIRECTORY | STDIN}
perlcritic --profile-proto
perlcritic { --list | --list-enabled | --list-themes | --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.
This documentation only covers how to drive this command. For all other information, such as API
reference and alternative interfaces, please see the documentation for Perl::Critic itself.
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/xms
perlcritic --include variables YourModule.pm
# Use defaults from somewhere other than ~/.perlcriticrc
perlcritic --profile project/specific/perlcriticrc 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" or "-p 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" in Perl::Critic 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 "POLICY THEMES" in Perl::Critic 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" or "-s PATTERN"
Directs "perlcritic" to apply just one Policy module matching the regex "/PATTERN/ixms", 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" annotations 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
%C The class of the PPI::Element 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.
This option lists all Policies, regardless of your .perlcriticrc or command line options. For each
Policy, the name, default severity and default themes are shown.
"--list-enabled"
Displays a condensed listing of all the Perl::Critic::Policy modules that would be enforced, if you
were actually going to critique a file with this command. This is useful when you've constructed a
complicated command or modified your .perlcriticrc file and you want to see exactly which Policies
are going to be enforced (or not enforced, as the case may be). For each Policy, the name, default
severity and default themes are shown.
"--list-themes"
Displays a list of all the themes of the Perl::Critic::Policy modules that are found on this machine.
"--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.
"--color"
"--colour"
This option is on when outputting to a tty. When set, Severity 5 and 4 are colored red and yellow,
respectively. Colorization only happens if Term::ANSIColor is installed. For Windows environments,
Win32::Console::ANSI must also be installed. Negate this switch to disable color. You can set the
default value for this option in your .perlcriticrc file.
"--pager PAGER_COMMAND_STRING"
If set, perlcritic will pipe it's output to the given PAGER_COMMAND_STRING. You can set the default
value for this option in your .perlcriticrc file.
Setting a pager turns off color by default. You will have to turn color on explicitly. If you want
color, you'll probably also want to tell your pager to display raw characters. For "less" and
"more", use the -R switch.
"--color-severity-highest COLOR_SPECIFICATION"
Specifies the color to be used for highest severity violations, as a Term::ANSIColor color
specification. Can also be specified as "--colour- severity-highest", "--color-severity-5", or
"--colour-severity-5".
"--color-severity-high COLOR_SPECIFICATION"
Specifies the color to be used for high severity violations, as a Term::ANSIColor color
specification. Can also be specified as "--colour- severity-high", "--color-severity-4", or
"--colour-severity-4".
"--color-severity-medium COLOR_SPECIFICATION"
Specifies the color to be used for medium severity violations, as a Term::ANSIColor color
specification. Can also be specified as "--colour- severity-medium", "--color-severity-3", or
"--colour-severity-3".
"--color-severity-low COLOR_SPECIFICATION"
Specifies the color to be used for low severity violations, as a Term::ANSIColor color specification.
Can also be specified as "--colour- severity-low", "--color-severity-2", or "--colour-severity-2".
"--color-severity-lowest COLOR_SPECIFICATION"
Specifies the color to be used for lowest severity violations, as a Term::ANSIColor color
specification. Can also be specified as "--colour- severity-lowest", "--color-severity-1", or
"--colour-severity-1".
"--files-with-violations"
Display only the names of files with violations. Use this feature with --single-policy to find files
that contain violations of a given policy. Can also be specified as "--l".
"--files-without-violations"
Display only the names of files without violations. Use this feature with --single-policy to find
files that do not contain violations of a given policy. Can also be specified as "--L".
"--program-extensions file_name_extension"
Tell "perlcritic" to treat files whose names end in the given file name extension as programs, not as
modules. If a leading '.' is desired it must be explicitly specified, e.g.
--program-extensions .pl
The matching is case-sensitive, and the option may be specified as many times as desired, e.g.
--program-extensions .pl --program-extensions .cgi
The above can also be done by quoting the file name extensions:
--program-extensions '.pl .cgi'
Files whose name ends in '.PL' will always be considered programs.
"--doc PATTERN"
Displays the perldoc for all Perl::Critic::Policy modules that match "m/PATTERN/ixms". 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::RequireUpperCaseH eredocTerminator" at the
command prompt.
"--allow-unsafe"
This option directs "perlcritic" to allow the use of Policies that have been marked as "unsafe".
Unsafe Policies may result in risky operations by compiling and executing the code they analyze. All
the Policies that ship in the core Perl::Critic distribution are safe. However, third- party
Policies, such as those in the Perl::Critic::Dynamic distribution are not safe. Note that "safety" is
honorary -- if a Policy author marks a Policy as safe, it is not a guarantee that it won't do nasty
things. If you don't trust your Policies and the code you are analyzing, then do not use this
switch.
"--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"
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::Capitalization]
[-ValuesAndExpressions::ProhibitMagicNumbers]
#--------------------------------------------------------------
# For all other Policies, I accept the default severity,
# so no additional configuration is required for them.
Note that all policies included with the Perl::Critic distribution that have integer parameters accept
underscores ("_") in their values, as with Perl numeric literals. For example,
[ValuesAndExpressions::RequireNumberSeparators]
min_value = 1_000
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/ixms"
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 programs.
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
certrec Policies that CERT recommends
certrule Policies that CERT considers rules
maintenance Policies that affect the long-term health of the code
cosmetic Policies that only have a superficial effect
complexity Policies that specifically relate to code complexity
security Policies that relate to security issues
tests Policies that are specific to test programs
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 parentheses 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 annotations:
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" annotations direct Perl::Critic to ignore the remaining lines of code until a "## use
critic" annotation is found. If the "## no critic" annotation 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"
annotations, use the "--force" option.
A bare "## no critic" annotation 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" annotation (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::Capitalization
my $camelHumpVar = 'foo';
# Now exempt from NamingConventions::Capitalization
sub camelHumpSub {}
The argument list must be enclosed in parentheses and must contain one or more comma-separated barewords
(i.e. don't use quotes). The "## no critic" annotations can be nested, and Policies named by an inner
annotation will be disabled along with those already disabled an outer annotation.
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.
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 include syntax highlighting, on-
the-fly syntax check, content assist, code completion, perldoc support, source formatting with
Perl::Tidy, code templates, a regular expression editing tool, and integration with the Perl debugger.
Recent versions of EPIC also have built-in support for Perl::Critic. At least one Perl::Critic
contributor swears by EPIC. Go to <http://e-p-i-c.sourceforge.net> for more information about EPIC.
BBEdit
Josh Clark has produced an excellent Perl-Critic plugin for BBEdit. See
<http://globalmoxie.com/projects/bbedit-perl-critic/index.shtml> for download, installation, and usage
instructions. Apple users rejoice!
Komodo
Komodo is a proprietary IDE for Perl and several other dynamic languages. Starting in version 5.1.1,
Komodo has built-in support for Perl-Critic, if you have the Perl::Critic and criticism modules
installed. Free trial copies of Komodo can be obtained from the ActiveState website at
<http://www.activestate.com>.
ActivePerl
ActivePerl includes a very slick graphical interface for configuring and running Perl-Critic called
"perlcritic-gui". A free community edition of ActivePerl can be obtained from the ActiveState website at
<http://www.activestate.com>.
Visual Studio Code
Visual Studio Code is a lightweight but powerful source code editor which runs on your desktop and is
available for Windows, macOS and Linux.
The perlcritic extension can be found here:
<https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=sfodje.perlcritic>
The steps to install the perlcritic extension:
1. Menu: View->Command Palette
2. Type in "Extensions"
3. Select "Extensions: Install Extension"
4. In the search box type "perlcritic" and the extensions pane will open.
5. perlcritic should be the first entry
6. Select the "install" button
7. Once installed go to Preferences->Settings
8. Type in "perlcritic" in the search box
9. The settings options for perlcritic will show and you configure the extension here.
9a. If you want perlcritic to run automatically when the file is saved, select "only critique on save".
Open a Perl file. Save it and perlcritic should fire. There is a triangle with an exclamation point on
the status bar. Click it and it will open the issues that perlcritic has found.
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. 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 "<team@perlcritic.com>" and I'll be
happy to consider putting them into the Perl::Critic distribution. Or if you would like to work on the
Perl::Critic project directly, you can fork our repository at
<https://github.com/Perl-Critic/Perl-Critic.git>.
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
"<team@perlcritic.com>".
CONTACTING THE DEVELOPMENT TEAM
You are encouraged to subscribe to the mailing list at <https://groups.google.com/d/forum/perl-critic>.
At least one member of the development team is usually hanging around in <irc://irc.perl.org/#perlcritic>
and you can follow Perl::Critic on Twitter, at <https://twitter.com/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
Perl::Critic::Tics
These distributions enable you to use Perl::Critic in your unit tests:
Test::Perl::Critic
Test::Perl::Critic::Progressive
There is also a distribution that will install all the Perl::Critic related modules known to the
development team:
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 at
<https://github.com/Perl-Critic/Perl-Critic/issues>. Thanks.
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.
Thanks also to the Perl Foundation for providing a grant to support Chris Dolan's project to implement
twenty PBP policies. <http://www.perlfoundation.org/april_1_2007_new_grant_awards>
AUTHOR
Jeffrey Ryan Thalhammer <jeff@imaginative-software.com>
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (c) 2005-2021 Imaginative Software Systems. 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.
perl v5.36.0 2023-10-27 PERLCRITIC(1p)