Receiving Flymake error in Windows & Ubuntu Emacs for PHP

Question

I am receiving this error.

Error (flymake): Flymake: Failed to launch syntax check process 'php' with args (-f test_flymake.php -l): Searching for program: no such file or directory, php. Flymake will be switched OFF

I am on windows 7 with emacs 24 GNU Emacs 24.1.1 (i386-mingw-nt6.1.7601) There is an article which highlights this error but it is referring to checking /etc in linux however I am on windows. http://sachachua.com

This is the currently relevant part of my .emacs, what can I do to get it working.

(add-to-list 'load-path "C:/Users/renshaw family/AppData/Roaming/.emacs.d/elpa/flymake-0.4.11")
(require 'flymake)
(global-set-key [f3] 'flymake-display-err-menu-for-current-line)
(global-set-key [f4] 'flymake-goto-next-error)

;;(require 'flymake-php)

(require 'zencoding-mode)
(add-hook 'sgml-mode-hook 'zencoding-mode) ;; Auto-start on any markup modes

(defun flymake-php-init ()
  "Use php to check the syntax of the current file."
  (let* ((temp (flymake-init-create-temp-buffer-copy 'flymake-create-temp-inplace))
     (local (file-relative-name temp (file-name-directory buffer-file-name))))
    (list "php" (list "-f" local "-l"))))

(add-to-list 'flymake-err-line-patterns 
  '("\\(Parse\\|Fatal\\) error: +\\(.*?\\) in \\(.*?\\) on line \\([0-9]+\\)$" 3 4 nil 2))

(add-to-list 'flymake-allowed-file-name-masks '("\\.php$" flymake-php-init))

;; Drupal-type extensions
(add-to-list 'flymake-allowed-file-name-masks '("\\.module$" flymake-php-init))
(add-to-list 'flymake-allowed-file-name-masks '("\\.install$" flymake-php-init))
(add-to-list 'flymake-allowed-file-name-masks '("\\.inc$" flymake-php-init))
(add-to-list 'flymake-allowed-file-name-masks '("\\.engine$" flymake-php-init))

(add-hook 'php-mode-hook (lambda () (flymake-mode 1)))
(define-key php-mode-map '[M-S-up] 'flymake-goto-prev-error)
(define-key php-mode-map '[M-S-down] 'flymake-goto-next-error)

Edit:

I have now tried this in ubuntu 12.04 as well and receive the same error.

Answer 1

It looks like flymake can't find the PHP interpreter. Try adding an explicit hint about where to find PHP.

One way you could do this is by adding the following defun to your .emacs:

(defun my-flymake-get-php-cmdline  (source base-dir)
  "Gets the command line invocation needed for running a flymake
   session in a PHP buffer. This gets called by flymake itself."
    (list "C:\Path\to\PHP\php.exe"
    ;; Or the path to the PHP CLI executable on the Ubuntu machine you mentioned.
      (list "-f" source  "-l")))

Then modifying the flymate-php-init you're using now into this:

(defun flymake-php-init ()
  "Use php to check the syntax of the current file."
  (let* (
    (temp
      (flymake-init-create-temp-buffer-copy 'flymake-create-temp-inplace))
    (local
       (file-relative-name temp (file-name-directory buffer-file-name))))
  (get-cmdline-f 'my-flymake-get-php-cmdline)))

This advice is heavily based on this answer from someone else using flymake on Windows for PHP. You might also find that answer helpful, since their situation is similar to yours.