Microsoft's GitHub Offers Open-Source Developers 'One Linter to Rule Them All'

"GitHub says it's open-sourcing its in-house linting tool, the GitHub Super Linter, to clean up code," reports ZDNet: Having a tool that checks source code for programming blunders and other errors is useful for developers. Now Microsoft-owned GitHub has released the 'Super Linter' to help developers avoid the hassles of setting up code repositories with multiple linters...

GitHub describes it as a "simple combination of various linters, written in bash, to help validate your source code" for the purpose of preventing broken code from being uploaded to a 'master' branch, the key branch that other branches in a tree are merged to... The Super Linter Action lets developers 'lint' or check their code base using popular linters for Python, JavaScript, Go, XML, YAML, and more programming languages. As such, GitHub engineer Lucas Gravley describes the Super Linter as the "one linter to rule them all".

"The GitHub Super Linter was built out of necessity by the GitHub Services DevOps Engineering team to maintain consistency in our documentation and code while making communication and collaboration across the company a more productive experience," says Gravley... "When you've set your repository to start running this action, any time you open a pull request, it will start linting the code case and return via the Status API. It will let you know if any of your code changes passed successfully, or if any errors were detected, where they are, and what they are," explains Gravley.

The Super Linter doesn't fix problems but does flag them, so developers can then go back and fix them before they reach the master branch.

Re: No thank you

[tattood]

Ok, you run your code through this and who is to say that a copy of your code hasn't found its way onto MS's servers?

Yes, that is literally what happens when you commit to GitHub.

Re:

[LenKagetsu]

Well for starters even prior to acquiring GitHub, MS was one of its largest users.

Re:

[fahrbot-bot]

Well for starters even prior to acquiring GitHub, MS was one of its largest users.

So... MS has literally embraced GitHub. Sounds ominous [wikipedia.org]. :-)

Re: No thank you

[BAReFO0t]

You seem ro have mispelled that word there.

Did you mean "scourge" or "sore"?

Re:

[ShanghaiBill]

What does the super linter do? Can it support linting?

No, the "super linter" does not do linting itself.

It is a Bash shell script that looks at a source file and then invokes the correct linter.

Calling it a "super linter" is sort of like calling a makefile a "super compiler".

Polyspace is a half-step in the right direction

[Impy the Impiuos Imp]

As usual, programmers miss the forest for the trees. The problem isn't Lint. It's misuse by management who turn on almost everything, so you get 174,668 warnings that your castings of both sides of an equation to the same type (to prove to lints that the programmer considered the base types) is, ha ha, actually pointless, because the compiler up-promotes both to signed int anyway, and by casting, clearly you don't understand that.

Dumb programmers of Lint. These violations are not bugs. Develop real tools that find bugs, and design languages with this in mind from the ground up. Lint was a clever exercise...40 years ago. Break free from your entrenched rut.

Re: Polyspace is a half-step in the right directio

[BAReFO0t]

Implicit casting already makes pretty damn clear that I don't want any of your code anywhere near me, ever.
What else? Did you implement your own memory management and encryption stack too? :D

Repository

[Dan East]

I'm not convinced this is the right point in the development pipeline to be catching these kinds of issues. Perhaps it is a "failsafe" to catch basic syntax type errors that should have been never been committed in the first place?

Re:

[fahrbot-bot]

I'm not convinced this is the right point in the development pipeline to be catching these kinds of issues. Perhaps it is a "failsafe" to catch basic syntax type errors that should have been never been committed in the first place?

The compiler will (should) catch "basic syntax type errors"; lint is *suppose* to be for flagging ambiguous things that will otherwise/probably pass compilation. Most complaints are about requiring programmers to add things simply to shut lint up.

Pet peeve: articles/people that say, "invalid syntax error".

Re:

[phantomfive]

Typically it's something that happens during code review, when a pull request is made.

It's kind of convenient, because then the linter catches all style deviations (improper indent?) so code reviewers can focus on more important things.

MASTER Branch??!!!

[iggymanz]

Oh you evil sinner who isn't virtue signalling and being PC and worke, don't you know that phrase has been changed to something else?

Can't remember what, maybe it's "pimp daddy" branch or someshit but you'd better edit that summary

Re:

[istartedi]

He would be happy to do that, but it's not permissible to grant [washingtontimes.com] requests at this time.

Re:

[phantomfive]

That's ok, we can just replace that with a statue of Nancy Pelosi and Dianne Feinstein.

Re: MASTER Branch??!!!

[BAReFO0t]

Massa branch!
As opposed to the housenigga branch and the regular forkings of yomamas.

I need to watch Django Unchained again...

Re:

[rstanley]

I shouldn't have to install Docker on my local computer to run a simple linter on my code. Should be a native Linux app as all the other linters and other static analysis tools have been in the past. Unneeded complexity which coming from Mickey$oft does not surprise me at all!

Plus it does not seem to support C & C++!

Unacceptable.

Re: and worse

[BAReFO0t]

A faggot and lint? Now all you need is a tinderbox!

This was a racism test. If you think this last sentence was racist, you are a racist. Thank you for your time.
[ Close window ]

... using popular linters for ...

[BAReFO0t]

... [lists only joke/scripting/markup languages] and other programming languages.

There's one big fat hint that I'm not going to use this. :)

Ya, but ...

[fahrbot-bot]

Can I still write "TL;DR" or do I have to start using "/*NOTREACHED*/" ?

Re:

[chrism238]

No. "TL;DR" is equivalent to "comefrom top;"

I don't get it

[93 Escort Wagon]

Why is GitHub getting involved with processing cotton?

Re:

[Required Snark]

Cotton vs Lint - What's the difference? [wikidiff.com]

As nouns the difference between cotton and lint is that cotton is a plant that encases its seed in a thin fiber that is harvested and used as a fabric or cloth while lint is a fine material made by scraping cotton or linen cloth; used for dressing wounds.