Brakeman relies on ruby_parser for parsing Ruby code.

The steps below should help narrow down the source of the problem.

Check Ruby Syntax

If the file is a Ruby file, then the syntax can be checked directly.

Run ruby -c against the file that caused the error to check the syntax of the file using the Ruby interpreter.

Run ruby_parse against the file that caused the error to check the syntax of the file using ruby_parser.

Check ERB Output

If the file is an ERB template, then the output of erb or erubis must be checked.

Run erubis -x file_name.html.erb | ruby -c to check using Erubis.

Important: Rails uses a slightly modified version of ERB, so the output from these tools is not exactly the same as what Rails sees. Brakeman attempts to emulate the Rails version.

Check Haml Output

If the file is a Haml template, then the output of haml needs to be checked.

Run haml compile -c file_name.html.haml to check the output. Note that this will attempt to execute the code, which will likely fail. However, it will also indicate syntax problems.

File an Issue

Please file an issue with an example of the syntax which fails to parse.

Other Problems