Highlight blank line at the top of PHP file as a syntax error

[yramagicman]

Forgive me if this is the wrong place to file this bug, but I just spent an hour debugging a PHP program that wasn't working because I had a blank line at the top of the file. Is there a way ale can highlight that as a syntax error?

[w0rp]

If php gives you a syntax error for the file, then that could help.

Could you paste the output of :ALEInfo when you have a blank line at the top of a file? There might be something from some program we can parse in there. Or maybe php itself will return some message we could parse, which isn't being captured at the moment.

[yramagicman]

Current Filetype: php
Available Linters: ['hack', 'langserver', 'php', 'phpcs', 'phpmd', 'phpstan']
  Enabled Linters: ['hack', 'langserver', 'php', 'phpcs', 'phpmd', 'phpstan']
 Linter Variables:
let g:ale_php_langserver_executable = 'php-language-server.php'
let g:ale_php_langserver_use_global = 0
let g:ale_php_phpcs_executable = 'phpcs'
let g:ale_php_phpcs_standard = ''
let g:ale_php_phpcs_use_global = 0
let g:ale_php_phpmd_ruleset = 'cleancode,codesize,controversial,design,naming,unusedcode'
let g:ale_php_phpstan_executable = 'phpstan'
let g:ale_php_phpstan_level = '4'
 Global Variables:
let g:ale_echo_cursor = 1
let g:ale_echo_msg_error_str = 'Error'
let g:ale_echo_msg_format = '%s'
let g:ale_echo_msg_warning_str = 'Warning'
let g:ale_enabled = 1
let g:ale_fix_on_save = 0
let g:ale_fixers = {}
let g:ale_keep_list_window_open = 0
let g:ale_lint_delay = 200
let g:ale_lint_on_enter = 1
let g:ale_lint_on_save = 1
let g:ale_lint_on_text_changed = 'always'
let g:ale_linter_aliases = {}
let g:ale_linters = {}
let g:ale_open_list = 0
let g:ale_set_highlights = 1
let g:ale_set_loclist = 1
let g:ale_set_quickfix = 0
let g:ale_set_signs = 1
let g:ale_sign_column_always = 0
let g:ale_sign_error = '>>'
let g:ale_sign_offset = 1000000
let g:ale_sign_warning = '--'
let g:ale_statusline_format = ['%d error(s)', '%d warning(s)', 'OK']
let g:ale_warn_about_trailing_whitespace = 1
  Command History:
(finished - exit code 0) ['/usr/bin/zsh', '-c', 'php -l -d error_reporting=E_ALL -d display_errors=1 -- < ''/tmp/vnjyLvR/71/db_manager.php''']
<<<OUTPUT STARTS>>>
No syntax errors detected in -
<<<OUTPUT ENDS>>>
(finished - exit code 0) ['/usr/bin/zsh', '-c', 'php -l -d error_reporting=E_ALL -d display_errors=1 -- < ''/tmp/vnjyLvR/72/db_manager.php''']
<<<OUTPUT STARTS>>>
No syntax errors detected in -
<<<OUTPUT ENDS>>>
(finished - exit code 0) ['/usr/bin/zsh', '-c', 'php -l -d error_reporting=E_ALL -d display_errors=1 -- < ''/tmp/vnjyLvR/73/db_manager.php''']
<<<OUTPUT STARTS>>>
No syntax errors detected in -
<<<OUTPUT ENDS>>>
(finished - exit code 0) ['/usr/bin/zsh', '-c', 'php -l -d error_reporting=E_ALL -d display_errors=1 -- < ''/tmp/vnjyLvR/74/db_manager.php''']
<<<OUTPUT STARTS>>>
No syntax errors detected in -
<<<OUTPUT ENDS>>>
(finished - exit code 0) ['/usr/bin/zsh', '-c', 'php -l -d error_reporting=E_ALL -d display_errors=1 -- < ''/tmp/vnjyLvR/75/db_manager.php''']
<<<OUTPUT STARTS>>>
No syntax errors detected in -
<<<OUTPUT ENDS>>>

Php isn't seeing the blank line as a syntax error.

[w0rp]

Maybe there is a PHP linter out there which will complain about this.

[yramagicman]

Is there one you're already aware of that does that? I'll look around, but recommendations are always helpful.

[w0rp]

I'm not aware of one myself, but I wouldn't be surprised if there is one.

[adriaanzon]

Strange, for me the PHP linter does give an error about it:

[w0rp]

It's up to the tools to report this as an error. Some tool might do that.