Relax squizlabs/php_codesniffer requirements to support PHP 8.x compatability checks

[kasparsd]

What problem would the enhancement address for VIP?

VIP clients are unable to run PHP compatibility checks for PHP 8.2+ via phpcompatibility/phpcompatibility-wp.

Describe the solution you'd like

Expand the range of supported versions of squizlabs/php_codesniffer to allow v4 which is a requirement for the latest develop version (upcoming v10) of phpcompatibility/php-compatibility (which is required for latest PHP version checks), see PHPCompatibility/PHPCompatibility#2009

What code should be reported as a violation?

What code should not be reported as a violation?

Additional context

Consider allowing "squizlabs/php_codesniffer": "^3 || ^4" if that is indeed supported.

[kasparsd]

See https://github.com/PHPCSStandards/PHP_CodeSniffer/wiki/Version-4.0-Developer-Upgrade-Guide for context.

[kasparsd]

This is also blocked by wp-coding-standards/wpcs being locked to v3 of squizlabs/php_codesniffer -- tracked here: WordPress/WordPress-Coding-Standards#2622

[rodrigoprimo]

I'm not directly involved with this repository, so I could be missing something, but I believe supporting PHPCS 4.x is not an option at the moment. First, WPCS needs to support PHPCS 4.x, and then someone needs to make the VIPCS sniffs compatible with PHPCS 4.x.

That being said, I think this repository could use phpcompatibility/phpcompatibility:10.0.0-alpha2, which is still compatible with PHPCS 3.x and provides most of the PHP 8.x compatibility checks.

[kasparsd]

Thanks for the suggestion @rodrigoprimo!

Here is how to use both automattic/vipwpcs and the most recent version of upcoming v3 of phpcompatibility/phpcompatibility-wp:

{
	"require-dev": {
		"automattic/vipwpcs": "^3.0",
		"dealerdirect/phpcodesniffer-composer-installer": "^1.0",
		"phpcompatibility/phpcompatibility-wp": "^3.0"
	}
}

which now pulls in the latest version of phpcompatibility/phpcompatibility that support most of the recent PHP 8.x versions.

[GaryJones]

The "dealerdirect/phpcodesniffer-composer-installer": "^1.0", line shouldn't be needed - that's already required by VIPCS (and WPCS, and PHPCompatibility[WP]).