This sounds loosely related to #126, though more than anything, it feels that this is about understanding how rulesets work.

I can see two solutions here:

1. Don't use a separate ruleset. If this is only about excluding one sniff for a certain path, do that instead.

<rule ref="Inpsyde"/>
<rule ref="Inpsyde.CodeQuality.NoElse">
        <exclude-pattern>*/templates/*</exclude-pattern>
</rule>

2. Set things up more in a more modular fashion where the ruleset names don't overlap with sniff names.
   This would look something like this:
   • Inpsyde - a sniff collection which holds the sniffs only. The ruleset for this would look like:

     <ruleset name="Inpsyde">
     </ruleset>

   • InpsydeCS - ruleset only, no sniffs, this would look something like:

     <ruleset name="InpsydeCS">
         <rule ref="Inpsyde"/>
         ... whatever other rules you want to include ...
     </ruleset>

   • InpsydeTemplates - ruleset only, no sniffs, this would look something like:

     <ruleset name="InpsydeTemplates">
         <rule ref="InpsydeCS"/>
         <rule ref="Inpsyde.CodeQuality.NoElse">
             <severity>0</severity>
         </rule>
         ... whatever other template specific configuration you want ...
     </ruleset>

   You should then able to do something like this in the consumer packages:

   <rule ref="InpsydeCS">
       <exclude-pattern>*/templates/*</exclude-pattern>
   </rule>
   <rule ref="InpsydeTemplates">
       <include-pattern>*/templates/*</include-pattern>
   </rule>

Note: while looking at this, I checked out your repo and there are more problems with it, including the standards not complying with the naming conventions set out by PHPCS, which can cause problems with the autoloading and configuration.
I'd recommend reading up on this and fixing this up (or hiring someone who knows what they are doing to do this for you).

Thanks a lot for your fast feedback!

Don't use a separate ruleset. If this is only about excluding one sniff for a certain path, do that instead.

Perhaps it's the only way to go.

Set things up more in a more modular fashion where the ruleset names don't overlap with sniff names

Unfortunately, it doesn't work. I tested your suggestion, and it works exactly as my Option 1 (even a bit worse because of using severity).

This is the debug output from PHP_CodeSniffer\Runner::$ruleset.

ignorePatterns

I.e. all InpsydeCS rules will be ignored. And since we use ignore first (

includePatterns

It works as expected.

ruleset

It means severity is always assigned globally. So Inpsyde.CodeQuality.NoElse is not run for every part of the package.

So as I can see, it's impossible to exclude and include rules simultaneously. And severity is always global regardless of the include/exclude configuration.

Note: while looking at this, I checked out your repo and there are more problems with it, including the standards not complying with the naming conventions set out by PHPCS, which can cause problems with the autoloading and configuration

Thanks for the hint. We considering refactoring now 😄 .

@shvlv Sorry, my bad. I'll have another think about this.