Running behat outputs annoying PHP Strict standards error/notice

Question

I have tried implementing answers from these two questions:

• Is there a way to have Behat NOT fail on PHP Notice errors?
• How to run Behat tests when there are errors of level E_USER_DEPRECATED

But no luck: whenever I run behat, I still get this message before the features are run:

PHP Strict standards:  Declaration of Behat\Behat\Console\Input\InputDefinition::getSynopsis() should be compatible with Symfony\Component\Console\Input\InputDefinition::getSynopsis($short = false) in C:\phpbin\behat\vendor\behat\behat\src\Behat\Behat\Console\Input\InputDefinition.php on line 157
PHP Stack trace:
PHP   1. {main}() C:\phpbin\behat\vendor\behat\behat\bin\behat:0
PHP   2. Symfony\Component\Console\Application->run() C:\phpbin\behat\vendor\behat\behat\bin\behat:32
PHP   3. Behat\Behat\Console\BehatApplication->doRun() C:\phpbin\behat\vendor\symfony\console\Application.php:126
PHP   4. Behat\Behat\Console\BehatApplication->createCommand() C:\phpbin\behat\vendor\behat\behat\src\Behat\Behat\Console\BehatApplication.php:66
PHP   5. Symfony\Component\DependencyInjection\ContainerBuilder->get() C:\phpbin\behat\vendor\behat\behat\src\Behat\Behat\Console\BehatApplication.php:80
PHP   6. Symfony\Component\DependencyInjection\ContainerBuilder->createService() C:\phpbin\behat\vendor\symfony\dependency-injection\ContainerBuilder.php:504
PHP   7. ReflectionClass->newInstanceArgs() C:\phpbin\behat\vendor\symfony\dependency-injection\ContainerBuilder.php:980
PHP   8. Behat\Behat\Console\Command\BehatCommand->__construct() C:\phpbin\behat\vendor\symfony\dependency-injection\ContainerBuilder.php:980
PHP   9. Composer\Autoload\ClassLoader->loadClass() C:\phpbin\behat\vendor\symfony\dependency-injection\ContainerBuilder.php:0
PHP  10. Composer\Autoload\includeFile() C:\phpbin\behat\vendor\composer\ClassLoader.php:301

Strict standards: Declaration of Behat\Behat\Console\Input\InputDefinition::getSynopsis() should be compatible with Symfony\Component\Console\Input\InputDefinition::getSynopsis($short = false) in C:\phpbin\behat\vendor\behat\behat\src\Behat\Behat\Console\Input\InputDefinition.php on line 157

Call Stack:
    0.0003     237800   1. {main}() C:\phpbin\behat\vendor\behat\behat\bin\behat:0
    0.0250    1812816   2. Symfony\Component\Console\Application->run() C:\phpbin\behat\vendor\behat\behat\bin\behat:32
    0.0331    2201280   3. Behat\Behat\Console\BehatApplication->doRun() C:\phpbin\behat\vendor\symfony\console\Application.php:126
    0.0331    2201344   4. Behat\Behat\Console\BehatApplication->createCommand() C:\phpbin\behat\vendor\behat\behat\src\Behat\Behat\Console\BehatApplication.php:66
    0.2716    6867024   5. Symfony\Component\DependencyInjection\ContainerBuilder->get() C:\phpbin\behat\vendor\behat\behat\src\Behat\Behat\Console\BehatApplication.php:80
    0.2717    6868160   6. Symfony\Component\DependencyInjection\ContainerBuilder->createService() C:\phpbin\behat\vendor\symfony\dependency-injection\ContainerBuilder.php:504
    0.2903    7223504   7. ReflectionClass->newInstanceArgs() C:\phpbin\behat\vendor\symfony\dependency-injection\ContainerBuilder.php:980
    0.2903    7225288   8. Behat\Behat\Console\Command\BehatCommand->__construct() C:\phpbin\behat\vendor\symfony\dependency-injection\ContainerBuilder.php:980
    0.2904    7226416   9. Composer\Autoload\ClassLoader->loadClass() C:\phpbin\behat\vendor\symfony\dependency-injection\ContainerBuilder.php:0
    0.2909    7226568  10. Composer\Autoload\includeFile() C:\phpbin\behat\vendor\composer\ClassLoader.php:301

Feature: Search
  In order to use the admin pages
  As me (admin)
  I need to be able to load the pages

  Scenario: Navigating to the admin home page - check title and main heading # features\wikipedia.feature:6
    Given I am on "/dabblelabs/admin"                                        # FeatureContext::visit()
    Then I should see "Admin" in the "body" element                          # FeatureContext::assertElementContainsText()
    Then the element "body" should contain "Admin Home"                      # FeatureContext::assertElementContainsString()
    Then the title contains "Admin Home"                                     # FeatureContext::assertTitleContains()

1 scenario (1 passed)
4 steps (4 passed)
0m0.245s

In my FeatureContext.php file, above the class definition, I have:

ini_set('display_errors', '0');
error_reporting(E_ALL & ~E_STRICT);
define('BEHAT_ERROR_REPORTING', E_ERROR);

But I still get the errors. How can I hide them?

Answer 1

It turns out that I had followed several out of date tutorials which used an old, unmaintained version of Behat (2.4.*). I learnt that by raising an issue on Behat's Github repo:

https://github.com/Behat/Behat/issues/773#issuecomment-126410052

The composer.json that finally worked for me was:

{
    "require": {
        "behat/behat": "@stable",
        "behat/symfony2-extension": "@stable",
        "behat/mink": "@stable",
        "behat/mink-extension": "@stable",
        "behat/mink-browserkit-driver": "@stable",
        "behat/mink-goutte-driver": "@stable",
        "behat/mink-selenium2-driver": "@stable",
        "phpunit/php-code-coverage": "@stable",
        "phpunit/phpunit-mock-objects": "@stable",
        "phpunit/phpunit": "@stable"
        },
    "config": {
        "bin-dir": "bin/"
    }
}

And my behat.yml was:

default:
  suites:
      default:
          contexts:
              - FeatureContext:
                  parameters:
                      my_empty_array:
                          'mydummykey1': 'mydummyvalue1'
  extensions:
    Behat\MinkExtension:
      base_url: http://localhost
      goutte: ~
      selenium2: ~