Run code formatter from the command line with PhpStorm open - intellij-idea

Question

If I go to my PhpStorm\bin folder I can run the format.bat command to format files from the command line e.g.
phpstorm format -r C:\path\to\my\code -r -s c:\path\to\my\settings.xml
and that works great. However I cannot run the command if PhpStorm is open, I get an error:
Only one instance of PhpStorm can be run at a time
Not ideal to have to close my IDE or have to use a 3rd party code formatter. Is there any workaround? Without installing another copy of PhpStorm.

Answer 1

It's a known issue, please see: https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/IDEA-160462

Answer 2

The link from y.bedrov led me to here https://confluence.jetbrains.com/display/IDEADEV/Command-Line+Source+Code+Formatter with a potential solution.
Unfortunately I don't seem to be able to get it to work, I had to resort to copying my PhpStorm directory and using the copy instead. But I add it here in hopes that it helps others
Running Command-Line Formatter when the IDE is Running
On Linux/MacOS
Go to /bin directory where is a directory where Intellij IDEA or Intellij IDEA-based product is installed.
Copy idea.properties to some other file, for example, format.properties
Modify format.properties as follows:
Uncomment the lines:
# idea.config.path=${user.home}/.IntelliJIdea/config
# idea.system.path=${user.home}/.IntelliJIdea/system
Change them to point to some directories which differ from defaults, for example:
idea.config.path=${user.home}/.IntelliJIdea/format/config
idea.system.path=${user.home}/.IntelliJIdea/format/system
Modify format.sh by adding the line with IDEA_PROPERTIES variable:
\#!/bin/sh
\# ------------------------------------------------------
\# IntelliJ IDEA formatting script.
\# ------------------------------------------------------
IDE_BIN_HOME="${0%/*}"
export IDEA_PROPERTIES=$IDE_BIN_HOME/format.properties
exec "$IDE_BIN_HOME/idea.sh" format "$#"
Run format.sh without closing the IDE, it should give the following output:
IntelliJ IDEA ..., build ... Formatter
Usage: format [-h] [-r|-R] [-s|-settings settingsPath] path1 path2...
-h|-help Show a help message and exit.
-s|-settings A path to Intellij IDEA code style settings .xml file.
-r|-R Scan directories recursively.
-m|-mask A comma-separated list of file masks.
path.. A path to a file or a directory.
On Windows
You have to create a separate format.properties file as described above for Linux/MacOS.
Change format.bat file by adding a line with IDEA_PROPERTIES variable as follows:
#ECHO OFF
::----------------------------------------------------------------------
:: IntelliJ IDEA formatting script.
::----------------------------------------------------------------------
SET IDE_BIN_DIR=%~dp0
SET IDEA_PROPERTIES=%IDE_BIN_DIR%\format.properties
CALL "%IDE_BIN_DIR%\idea.bat" format %*
Run format.bat, it will list the command-line formatter options.

Answer 3

This guide works for me. But ensure use PHPSTORM_PROPERTIES instead of IDEA_PROPERTIES when export environment variable as described in the article:
export IDEA_PROPERTIES=$IDE_BIN_HOME/format.properties
And what's more, from version 2022.1, IntelliJ IDEA supports dry run which is very useful for format validation based pre-commit git hook.