Exit code of prohibits (why-not) is always 0

[InvisibleSmiley]

composer.json:

{
  "require": {
    "php": "^8.1",
    "psr/log": "^3"
  }
}

When I run this command:

composer why-not php 100

I get the following output:

Package "php" could not be found with constraint "100", results below will most likely be incomplete.
__root__ - requires php (^8.1)
Not finding what you were looking for? Try calling `composer update "php:100" --dry-run` to get another view on the problem.

with exit code 0.

And I expected this to happen:
Exit code > 0

Compare that to the "OK" case:

When I run this command:

composer why-not php ^8.1

I get the following output:

There is no installed package depending on "php" in versions not matching ^8.1
Not finding what you were looking for? Try calling `composer update "php:^8.1" --dry-run` to get another view on the problem.

with exit code 0.

So right now the only way to determine that we have a problem in the one case but not the other is to parse the output.
That's very unfortunate (and unexpected, at least for me).

Please note that what I need is a way to distinguish the cases where there is an actual problem from those where there is none.

For example if you execute the below, you'll receive a warning/error hinting at possibly incomplete results but that should not count as an error as far as the exit code is concerned:

When I run this command:

composer why-not php ^8.2

I get the following output:

Package "php" could not be found with constraint "^8.2", results below will most likely be incomplete.
There is no installed package depending on "php" in versions not matching ^8.2
Not finding what you were looking for? Try calling `composer update "php:^8.2" --dry-run` to get another view on the problem.

with exit code 0.

[Seldaek]

Well those are not wrong per se.. They are nonsensical as you used php version 100 but that's just you and I knowing that is unlikely. If you used php 9 you will also not find anything, even tho that's a much less nonsensical prompt, and in both cases it is not something Composer can know is wrong IMO.

So I am not sure in what case you would expect a non-zero exit code.

[InvisibleSmiley]

Sorry, I thought this would be obvious. Let me rephrase, and assume version 8.3 instead of 100 for a more realistic version constraint.

Assuming you have any package that includes a "php" version constraint either directly or through its dependencies, I expect the following exit codes depending on the case:

• the package can be installed with the PHP version (constraint) provided on the command line: exit code 0
• the package cannot be installed with the PHP version (constraint) provided on the command line: exit code > 0 (and explanation why in the output)

As I said, right now I can only distinguish the two different outcomes right now by parsing the output which is neither elegant nor future-proof.

[Seldaek]

Ok so it's not about the warnings, but about whether why-not found a result or not. I see. Yeah that should be fixable fairly easily.