pkl format should not exit with 11 in case of violation found #365

New Issue

2025-12-30T01:23:51+01:00

adam commented

2025-12-30 01:23:51 +01:00

Originally created by @StefMa on GitHub (Nov 18, 2025).

I'm not an CLI nor an exit code expert.
But when I run pkl format -w . I realize that it exit with 11 (violation found).
This is also documented:

However, I think a CLI should only return non zero in case of an error in the process.
It should not return non zero in case the CLI (format) tool runs successfully, but found problems.

Looking also into wikipedia about Exit status:

For the shell's purposes, a command which exits with a zero exit status has succeeded. A nonzero exit status indicates failure.

For me it sounds like "a non exit code means the program doesn't behave correctly, failed for some reaasons".
But it is not! It just found violation errors. This is his job 🤷 😁

What do you think?

Originally created by @StefMa on GitHub (Nov 18, 2025). I'm not an CLI nor an exit code expert. But when I run `pkl format -w .` I realize that it exit with 11 (violation found). This is also documented: <img width="809" height="373" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/f7e7a289-5358-4a5b-b4d8-c6a1f86a89e3" /> However, I think a CLI should only return non zero in case of an **error in the process**. It should not return non zero in case the CLI (format) tool runs successfully, but found problems. Looking also into wikipedia about [Exit status](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exit_status): > For the shell's purposes, a command which exits with a zero exit status has succeeded. A nonzero exit status indicates failure. For me it sounds like "a non exit code means the program doesn't behave correctly, failed for some reaasons". But it is not! It just found violation errors. This is his job 🤷 😁 What do you think?

adam closed this issue

2025-12-30 01:23:51 +01:00

adam commented

2025-12-30 01:23:52 +01:00

@thejcannon commented on GitHub (Dec 3, 2025):

Looking at other file formatters:

Tool	Check bad	Overwrite Bad
Python's `ruff format` (`ruff format --check` and `ruff format`)	1	0
Go's `gofmt` (`gofmt -d` and `gofmt -w`)	0	0
Shell `shfmt` (`shfmt -d` and `shfmt -w`)	1	0
Rust's `rustfmt` (`rustfmt --check` and `rustfmt`)	1	0
YAML's `yamlfmt` (`yamlfmt -lint` and `yamlfmt`)	1	0
TOML's `taplo format` (`taplo format --check` and `taplo format`)	1	0
PKL's `pkl format` (`pkl format --diff-name-only` and `pkl format -w`)	11	11

@thejcannon commented on GitHub (Dec 3, 2025): Looking at other file formatters: | Tool | Check bad | Check good | Overwrite Bad | Overwrite Good | |--------|--------|--------|--------|--------| | Python's `ruff format` (`ruff format --check` and `ruff format`) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | Go's `gofmt` (`gofmt -d` and `gofmt -w`) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | Shell `shfmt` (`shfmt -d` and `shfmt -w`) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | Rust's `rustfmt` (`rustfmt --check` and `rustfmt`) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | YAML's `yamlfmt` (`yamlfmt -lint` and `yamlfmt`) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | TOML's `taplo format` (`taplo format --check` and `taplo format`) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | PKL's `pkl format` (`pkl format --diff-name-only` and `pkl format -w`) | 11 | 0 | 11 | 0 |

adam commented

2025-12-30 01:23:52 +01:00