Super-Linter

This repository is for the GitHub Action to run a Super-Linter. It is a simple combination of various linters, written in bash, to help validate your source code.

The end goal of this tool:

• Prevent broken code from being uploaded to the default branch (Usually master or main)
• Help establish coding best practices across multiple languages
• Build guidelines for code layout and format
• Automate the process to help streamline code reviews

Table of Contents

• Super-Linter
  • Table of Contents
  • How it Works
  • Supported Linters
  • How to use
    • Example connecting GitHub Action Workflow
    • Add Super-Linter badge in your repository README
    • Images
      • Standard Image
      • Slim Image
  • Environment variables
    • Template rules files
    • Using your own rules files
    • Disabling rules
  • Filter linted files
  • Docker Hub
  • Run Super-Linter outside GitHub Actions
    • Local (troubleshooting/debugging/enhancements)
    • Azure
    • GitLab
    • Visual Studio Code
    • SSL Certs
  • Community Activity
  • Limitations
  • How to contribute
    • License

How it Works

The super-linter finds issues and reports them to the console output. Fixes are suggested in the console output but not automatically fixed, and a status check will show up as failed on the pull request.

The design of the Super-Linter is currently to allow linting to occur in GitHub Actions as a part of continuous integration occurring on pull requests as the commits get pushed. It works best when commits are being pushed early and often to a branch with an open or draft pull request. There is some desire to move this closer to local development for faster feedback on linting errors but this is not yet supported.

Supported Linters

Developers on GitHub can call the GitHub Action to lint their code base with the following list of linters:

Language	Linter
Ansible	ansible-lint
Azure Resource Manager (ARM)	arm-ttk
AWS CloudFormation templates	cfn-lint
C++	cpp-lint / clang-format
C#	dotnet-format / clang-format
CSS	stylelint
Clojure	clj-kondo
CoffeeScript	coffeelint
Copy/paste detection	jscpd
Dart	dartanalyzer
Dockerfile	dockerfilelint / hadolint
EDITORCONFIG	editorconfig-checker
ENV	dotenv-linter
GitHub Actions	actionlint
Gherkin	gherkin-lint
Golang	golangci-lint
Groovy	npm-groovy-lint
HTML	HTMLHint
Java	checkstyle
JavaScript	eslint / standard js
JSON	eslint-plugin-json
JSONC	eslint-plugin-jsonc
Kubeval	kubeval
Kotlin	ktlint
LaTeX	ChkTex
Lua	luacheck
Markdown	markdownlint
OpenAPI	spectral
Perl	perlcritic
PHP	PHP built-in linter / PHP CodeSniffer / PHPStan / Psalm
PowerShell	PSScriptAnalyzer
Protocol Buffers	protolint
Python3	pylint / flake8 / black / isort
R	lintr
Raku	Raku
Ruby	RuboCop
Rust	Rustfmt / Clippy
Shell	Shellcheck / [executable bit check] / shfmt
Snakemake	snakefmt / snakemake --lint
SQL	sql-lint / slqfluff
Tekton	tekton-lint
Terraform	tflint / terrascan
Terragrunt	terragrunt
TypeScript	eslint / standard js
XML	LibXML
YAML	YamlLint

How to use

More in-depth tutorial available

To use this GitHub Action you will need to complete the following:

1. Create a new file in your repository called .github/workflows/linter.yml
2. Copy the example workflow from below into that new file, no extra configuration required
3. Commit that file to a new branch
4. Open up a pull request and observe the action working
5. Enjoy your more stable, and cleaner code base
6. Check out the Wiki for customization options

NOTE: If you pass the Environment variable GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }} in your workflow, then the GitHub Super-Linter will mark the status of each individual linter run in the Checks section of a pull request. Without this you will only see the overall status of the full run. There is no need to set the GitHub Secret as it is automatically set by GitHub, it only needs to be passed to the action.

Example connecting GitHub Action Workflow

In your repository you should have a .github/workflows folder with GitHub Action similar to below:

• .github/workflows/linter.yml
  • Example file can be found at TEMPLATES/linter.yml

This file should have the following code:

---
#################################
#################################
## Super Linter GitHub Actions ##
#################################
#################################
name: Lint Code Base

#
# Documentation:
# https://help.github.com/en/articles/workflow-syntax-for-github-actions
#

#############################
# Start the job on all push #
#############################
on:
  push:
    branches-ignore: [master, main]
    # Remove the line above to run when pushing to master
  pull_request:
    branches: [master, main]

###############
# Set the Job #
###############
jobs:
  build:
    # Name the Job
    name: Lint Code Base
    # Set the agent to run on
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    ##################
    # Load all steps #
    ##################
    steps:
      ##########################
      # Checkout the code base #
      ##########################
      - name: Checkout Code
        uses: actions/checkout@v2
        with:
          # Full git history is needed to get a proper list of changed files within `super-linter`
          fetch-depth: 0

      ################################
      # Run Linter against code base #
      ################################
      - name: Lint Code Base
        uses: github/super-linter@v4
        env:
          VALIDATE_ALL_CODEBASE: false
          DEFAULT_BRANCH: master
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

Add Super-Linter badge in your repository README

You can show Super-Linter status with a badge in your repository README

Format:

[![GitHub Super-Linter](https://github.com/<OWNER>/<REPOSITORY>/workflows/Lint%20Code%20Base/badge.svg)](https://github.com/marketplace/actions/super-linter)

Example:

[![GitHub Super-Linter](https://github.com/nvuillam/npm-groovy-lint/workflows/Lint%20Code%20Base/badge.svg)](https://github.com/marketplace/actions/super-linter)

Note: IF you did not use Lint Code Base as GitHub Action name, please read GitHub Actions Badges documentation

Images

The GitHub Super-Linter now builds and supports multiple images. We have found as we added more linters, the image size expanded drastically. After further investigation, we were able to see that a few linters were very disk heavy. We removed those linters and created the slim image. This allows users to choose which Super-Linter they want to run and potentially speed up their build time. The available images:

• github/super-linter:v4
• github/super-linter:slim-v4

Standard Image

The standard github/super-linter:v4 comes with all supported linters. Example usage:

################################
# Run Linter against code base #
################################
- name: Lint Code Base
  uses: github/super-linter@v4
  env:
    VALIDATE_ALL_CODEBASE: false
    DEFAULT_BRANCH: master
    GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

Slim Image

The slim github/super-linter:slim-v4 comes with all supported linters but removes the following:

• rust linters
• dotenv linters
• armttk linters
• pwsh linters
• c# linters

By removing these linters, we were able to bring the image size down by 2gb and drastically speed up the build and download time. The behavior will be the same for non-supported languages, and will skip languages at run time. Example usage:

################################
# Run Linter against code base #
################################
- name: Lint Code Base
  uses: docker://ghcr.io/github/super-linter:slim-v4
  env:
    VALIDATE_ALL_CODEBASE: false
    DEFAULT_BRANCH: master
    GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

Environment variables

The super-linter allows you to pass the following ENV variables to be able to trigger different functionality.

Note: All the VALIDATE_[LANGUAGE] variables behave in a very specific way:

• If none of them are passed, then they all default to true.
• If any one of the variables are set to true, we default to leaving any unset variable to false (only validate those languages).
• If any one of the variables are set to false, we default to leaving any unset variable to true (only exclude those languages).
• If there are VALIDATE_[LANGUAGE] variables set to both true and false. It will fail.

This means that if you run the linter "out of the box", all languages will be checked. But if you wish to select or exclude specific linters, we give you full control to choose which linters are run, and won't run anything unexpected.

ENV VAR	Default Value	Notes
ACTIONS_RUNNER_DEBUG	false	Flag to enable additional information about the linter, versions, and additional output.
ANSIBLE_CONFIG_FILE	.ansible-lint.yml	Filename for Ansible-lint configuration (ex: .ansible-lint, .ansible-lint.yml)
ANSIBLE_DIRECTORY	/ansible	Flag to set the root directory for Ansible file location(s), relative to DEFAULT_WORKSPACE. Set to . to use the top-level of the DEFAULT_WORKSPACE.
CSS_FILE_NAME	.stylelintrc.json	Filename for Stylelint configuration (ex: .stylelintrc.yml, .stylelintrc.yaml)
DEFAULT_BRANCH	master	The name of the repository default branch.
DEFAULT_WORKSPACE	/tmp/lint	The location containing files to lint if you are running locally.
DISABLE_ERRORS	false	Flag to have the linter complete with exit code 0 even if errors were detected.
DOCKERFILE_HADOLINT_FILE_NAME	.hadolint.yaml	Filename for hadolint configuration (ex: .hadolintlintrc.yaml)
EDITORCONFIG_FILE_NAME	.ecrc	Filename for editorconfig-checker configuration
ERROR_ON_MISSING_EXEC_BIT	false	If set to false, the bash-exec linter will report a warning if a shell script is not executable. If set to true, the bash-exec linter will report an error instead.
FILTER_REGEX_EXCLUDE	none	Regular expression defining which files will be excluded from linting (ex: .*src/test.*)
FILTER_REGEX_INCLUDE	all	Regular expression defining which files will be processed by linters (ex: .*src/.*)
GITHUB_ACTIONS_CONFIG_FILE	actionlint.yml	Filename for Actionlint configuration (ex: actionlint.yml)
GITHUB_DOMAIN	github.com	Specify a custom Github domain in case Github Enterprise is used: e.g. github.myenterprise.com
GITHUB_CUSTOM_API_URL	api.github.com	Specify a custom Github API URL in case Github Enterprise is used: e.g. https://github.myenterprise.com/api/v3/
IGNORE_GENERATED_FILES	false	If set to true, super-linter will ignore all the files with @generated marker but without @not-generated marker.
IGNORE_GITIGNORED_FILES	false	If set to true, super-linter will ignore all the files that are ignored by Git.
JAVA_FILE_NAME	sun-checks.xml	Filename for Checkstyle configuration (ex: checkstyle.xml)
JAVASCRIPT_ES_CONFIG_FILE	.eslintrc.yml	Filename for eslint configuration (ex: .eslintrc.yml, .eslintrc.json)
JAVASCRIPT_DEFAULT_STYLE	standard	Flag to set the default style of javascript. Available options: standard/prettier
JSCPD_CONFIG_FILE	.jscpd.json	Filename for JSCPD configuration
KUBERNETES_KUBEVAL_OPTIONS	null	Additional arguments to pass to the command line when running Kubernetes Kubeval (Example: --ignore-missing-schemas)
LINTER_RULES_PATH	.github/linters	Directory for all linter configuration rules.
LOG_FILE	super-linter.log	The file name for outputting logs. All output is sent to the log file regardless of LOG_LEVEL.
LOG_LEVEL	VERBOSE	How much output the script will generate to the console. One of ERROR, WARN, NOTICE, VERBOSE, DEBUG or TRACE.
MULTI_STATUS	true	A status API is made for each language that is linted to make visual parsing easier.
MARKDOWN_CONFIG_FILE	.markdown-lint.yml	Filename for Markdownlint configuration (ex: .markdown-lint.yml, .markdownlint.json, .markdownlint.yaml)
MARKDOWN_CUSTOM_RULE_GLOBS	.markdown-lint/rules,rules/**	Comma-separated list of file globs matching custom Markdownlint rule files.
PHP_CONFIG_FILE	php.ini	Filename for PHP Configuration (ex: php.ini)
PYTHON_BLACK_CONFIG_FILE	.python-black	Filename for black configuration (ex: .isort.cfg, pyproject.toml)
PYTHON_FLAKE8_CONFIG_FILE	.flake8	Filename for flake8 configuration (ex: .flake8, tox.ini)
PYTHON_ISORT_CONFIG_FILE	.isort.cfg	Filename for isort configuration (ex: .isort.cfg, pyproject.toml)
PYTHON_MYPY_CONFIG_FILE	.mypy.ini	Filename for mypy configuration (ex: .mypi.ini, setup.config)
PYTHON_PYLINT_CONFIG_FILE	.python-lint	Filename for pylint configuration (ex: .python-lint, .pylintrc)
RUBY_CONFIG_FILE	.ruby-lint.yml	Filename for rubocop configuration (ex: .ruby-lint.yml, .rubocop.yml)
SUPPRESS_POSSUM	false	If set to true, will hide the ASCII possum at top of log output. Default is false
SNAKEMAKE_SNAKEFMT_CONFIG_FILE	.snakefmt.toml	Filename for Snakemake configuration (ex: pyproject.toml, .snakefmt.toml)
SSL_CERT_SECRET	none	SSL cert to add to the Super-Linter trust store. This is needed for users on self-hosted runners or need to inject the cert for security standards (ex. ${{ secrets.SSL_CERT }})
SQL_CONFIG_FILE	.sql-config.json	Filename for SQL-Lint configuration (ex: sql-config.json , .config.json)
TERRAFORM_TFLINT_CONFIG_FILE	.tflint.hcl	Filename for tfLint configuration (ex: .tflint.hcl)
TERRAFORM_TERRASCAN_CONFIG_FILE	terrascan.toml	Filename for terrascan configuration (ex: terrascan.toml)
TYPESCRIPT_ES_CONFIG_FILE	.eslintrc.yml	Filename for eslint configuration (ex: .eslintrc.yml, .eslintrc.json)
USE_FIND_ALGORITHM	false	By default, we use git diff to find all files in the workspace and what has been updated, this would enable the Linux find method instead to find all files to lint
VALIDATE_ALL_CODEBASE	true	Will parse the entire repository and find all files to validate across all types. NOTE: When set to false, only new or edited files will be parsed for validation.
VALIDATE_ANSIBLE	true	Flag to enable or disable the linting process of the Ansible language.
VALIDATE_ARM	true	Flag to enable or disable the linting process of the ARM language.
VALIDATE_BASH	true	Flag to enable or disable the linting process of the Bash language.
VALIDATE_BASH_EXEC	true	Flag to enable or disable the linting process of the Bash language to validate if file is stored as executable.
VALIDATE_CPP	true	Flag to enable or disable the linting process of the C++ language.
VALIDATE_CLANG_FORMAT	true	Flag to enable or disable the linting process of the C++/C language with clang-format.
VALIDATE_CLOJURE	true	Flag to enable or disable the linting process of the Clojure language.
VALIDATE_CLOUDFORMATION	true	Flag to enable or disable the linting process of the AWS Cloud Formation language.
VALIDATE_COFFEESCRIPT	true	Flag to enable or disable the linting process of the Coffeescript language.
VALIDATE_CSHARP	true	Flag to enable or disable the linting process of the C# language.
VALIDATE_CSS	true	Flag to enable or disable the linting process of the CSS language.
VALIDATE_DART	true	Flag to enable or disable the linting process of the Dart language.
VALIDATE_DOCKERFILE	true	Flag to enable or disable the linting process of the Docker language.
VALIDATE_DOCKERFILE_HADOLINT	true	Flag to enable or disable the linting process of the Docker language.
VALIDATE_EDITORCONFIG	true	Flag to enable or disable the linting process with the editorconfig.
VALIDATE_ENV	true	Flag to enable or disable the linting process of the ENV language.
VALIDATE_GITHUB_ACTIONS	true	Flag to enable or disable the linting process of the GitHub Actions.
VALIDATE_GHERKIN	true	Flag to enable or disable the linting process of the Gherkin language.
VALIDATE_GO	true	Flag to enable or disable the linting process of the Golang language.
VALIDATE_GROOVY	true	Flag to enable or disable the linting process of the language.
VALIDATE_HTML	true	Flag to enable or disable the linting process of the HTML language.
VALIDATE_JAVA	true	Flag to enable or disable the linting process of the language.
VALIDATE_JAVASCRIPT_ES	true	Flag to enable or disable the linting process of the Javascript language. (Utilizing: eslint)
VALIDATE_JAVASCRIPT_STANDARD	true	Flag to enable or disable the linting process of the Javascript language. (Utilizing: standard)
VALIDATE_JSCPD	true	Flag to enable or disable the JSCPD.
VALIDATE_JSON	true	Flag to enable or disable the linting process of the JSON language.
VALIDATE_JSX	true	Flag to enable or disable the linting process for jsx files (Utilizing: eslint)
VALIDATE_KOTLIN	true	Flag to enable or disable the linting process of the Kotlin language.
VALIDATE_KUBERNETES_KUBEVAL	true	Flag to enable or disable the linting process of Kubernetes descriptors with Kubeval
VALIDATE_LATEX	true	Flag to enable or disable the linting process of the LaTeX language.
VALIDATE_LUA	true	Flag to enable or disable the linting process of the language.
VALIDATE_MARKDOWN	true	Flag to enable or disable the linting process of the Markdown language.
VALIDATE_OPENAPI	true	Flag to enable or disable the linting process of the OpenAPI language.
VALIDATE_PERL	true	Flag to enable or disable the linting process of the Perl language.
VALIDATE_PHP	true	Flag to enable or disable the linting process of the PHP language. (Utilizing: PHP built-in linter) (keep for backward compatibility)
VALIDATE_PHP_BUILTIN	true	Flag to enable or disable the linting process of the PHP language. (Utilizing: PHP built-in linter)
VALIDATE_PHP_PHPCS	true	Flag to enable or disable the linting process of the PHP language. (Utilizing: PHP CodeSniffer)
VALIDATE_PHP_PHPSTAN	true	Flag to enable or disable the linting process of the PHP language. (Utilizing: PHPStan)
VALIDATE_PHP_PSALM	true	Flag to enable or disable the linting process of the PHP language. (Utilizing: PSalm)
VALIDATE_PROTOBUF	true	Flag to enable or disable the linting process of the Protobuf language.
VALIDATE_PYTHON	true	Flag to enable or disable the linting process of the Python language. (Utilizing: pylint) (keep for backward compatibility)
VALIDATE_PYTHON_BLACK	true	Flag to enable or disable the linting process of the Python language. (Utilizing: black)
VALIDATE_PYTHON_FLAKE8	true	Flag to enable or disable the linting process of the Python language. (Utilizing: flake8)
VALIDATE_PYTHON_ISORT	true	Flag to enable or disable the linting process of the Python language. (Utilizing: isort)
VALIDATE_PYTHON_MYPY	true	Flag to enable or disable the linting process of the Python language. (Utilizing: mypy)
VALIDATE_PYTHON_PYLINT	true	Flag to enable or disable the linting process of the Python language. (Utilizing: pylint)
VALIDATE_POWERSHELL	true	Flag to enable or disable the linting process of the Powershell language.
VALIDATE_R	true	Flag to enable or disable the linting process of the R language.
VALIDATE_RAKU	true	Flag to enable or disable the linting process of the Raku language.
VALIDATE_RUBY	true	Flag to enable or disable the linting process of the Ruby language.
VALIDATE_RUST_2015	true	Flag to enable or disable the linting process of the Rust language. (edition: 2015)
VALIDATE_RUST_2018	true	Flag to enable or disable the linting process of Rust language. (edition: 2018)
VALIDATE_RUST_CLIPPY	true	Flag to enable or disable the clippy linting process of Rust language.
VALIDATE_SHELL_SHFMT	true	Flag to enable or disable the linting process of Shell scripts. (Utilizing: shfmt)
VALIDATE_SNAKEMAKE_LINT	true	Flag to enable or disable the linting process of Snakefiles. (Utilizing: snakemake --lint)
VALIDATE_SNAKEMAKE_SNAKEFMT	true	Flag to enable or disable the linting process of Snakefiles. (Utilizing: snakefmt)
VALIDATE_STATES	true	Flag to enable or disable the linting process for AWS States Language.
VALIDATE_SQL	true	Flag to enable or disable the linting process of the SQL language.
VALIDATE_SQLFLUFF	true	Flag to enable or disable the linting process of the SQL language. (Utilizing: sqlfuff)
VALIDATE_TEKTON	true	Flag to enable or disable the linting process of the Tekton language.
VALIDATE_TERRAFORM_TFLINT	true	Flag to enable or disable the linting process of the Terraform language. (Utilizing tflint)
VALIDATE_TERRAFORM_TERRASCAN	true	Flag to enable or disable the linting process of the Terraform language for security related issues.
VALIDATE_TERRAGRUNT	true	Flag to enable or disable the linting process for Terragrunt files.
VALIDATE_TSX	true	Flag to enable or disable the linting process for tsx files (Utilizing: eslint)
VALIDATE_TYPESCRIPT_ES	true	Flag to enable or disable the linting process of the Typescript language. (Utilizing: eslint)
VALIDATE_TYPESCRIPT_STANDARD	true	Flag to enable or disable the linting process of the Typescript language. (Utilizing: standard)
VALIDATE_XML	true	Flag to enable or disable the linting process of the XML language.
VALIDATE_YAML	true	Flag to enable or disable the linting process of the YAML language.
YAML_CONFIG_FILE	.yaml-lint.yml	Filename for Yamllint configuration (ex: .yaml-lint.yml, .yamllint.yml)

Template rules files

You can use the GitHub Super-Linter with or without your own personal rules sets. This allows for greater flexibility for each individual code base. The Template rules all try to follow the standards we believe should be enabled at the basic level.

• Copy any or all template rules files from TEMPLATES/ into your repository in the location: .github/linters/ of your repository
  • If your repository does not have rules files, they will fall back to defaults in this repository's TEMPLATE folder

Using your own rules files

If your repository contains your own rules files that live outside of a .github/linters/ directory, you will have to tell Super-Linter where your rules files are located in your repository, and what their file names are. To learn more, see Using your own rules files.

Disabling rules

If you need to disable certain rules and functionality, you can view Disable Rules

Filter linted files

If you need to lint only a folder or exclude some files from linting, you can use optional environment parameters FILTER_REGEX_INCLUDE and FILTER_REGEX_EXCLUDE

Examples:

• Lint only src folder: FILTER_REGEX_INCLUDE: .*src/.*
• Do not lint files inside test folder: FILTER_REGEX_EXCLUDE: .*test/.*
• Do not lint javascript files inside test folder: FILTER_REGEX_EXCLUDE: .*test/.*.js

Additionally when IGNORE_GENERATED_FILES=true, super-linter ignores any file with @generated marker in it unless the file also has @not-generated marker. @generated marker is used by Facebook and some other projects to mark generated files. For example, this file is considered generated:

#!/bin/sh
echo "@generated"

And this file is considered not generated:

#!/bin/sh
echo "@generated" # @not-generated

Docker Hub

The Docker container that is built from this repository is located at github/super-linter

Run Super-Linter outside GitHub Actions

Local (troubleshooting/debugging/enhancements)

If you find that you need to run super-linter locally, you can follow the documentation at Running super-linter locally

Check out the note in How it Works to understand more about the Super-Linter linting locally versus via continuous integration.

Azure

Check out this article

GitLab

Check out this snippet And this Guided Exploration: GitLab CI CD Extension for Super-Linter

Visual Studio Code

You can checkout this repository using Container Remote Development, and debug the linter using the Test Linter task.

We will also support GitHub Codespaces once it becomes available

SSL Certs

If you need to inject a SSL cert into the trust store, you will need to first copy the cert to GitHub Secrets Once you have copied the plain text certificate into GitHub Secrets, you can use the variable SSL_CERT_SECRET to point the Super-Linter to the files contents. Once found, it will load the certificate contents to a file, and to the trust store.

• Example workflow:

- name: Lint Code Base
  uses: github/super-linter@v4
  env:
    GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
    SSL_CERT_SECRET: ${{ secrets.ROOT_CA }}

Community Activity

Limitations

Below are a list of the known limitations for the GitHub Super-Linter:

• Due to being completely packaged at run time, you will not be able to update dependencies or change versions of the enclosed linters and binaries
• Additional details from package.json are not read by the GitHub Super-Linter
• Downloading additional codebases as dependencies from private repositories will fail due to lack of permissions

How to contribute

If you would like to help contribute to this GitHub Action, please see CONTRIBUTING

---

License

• MIT License