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)
• Help establish coding best practices across multiple languages
• Build guidelines for code layout and format
• Automate the process to help streamline code reviews

• Super-Linter
  • Table of Contents
  • How it Works
  • Supported Linters
  • How to use
    • Example connecting GitHub Action Workflow
  • Environment variables
    • Template rules files
  • Disabling rules
  • Docker Hub
  • Run Super-Linter outside GitHub Actions
    • Local (troubleshooting/debugging/enhancements)
    • Azure
    • GitLab
    • Visual Studio Code
  • Limitations
  • How to contribute
    • License

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.

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

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.

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

• .github/workflows/linter.yml

This file should have the following code:

---
###########################
###########################
## 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]
    # Remove the line above to run when pushing to master
  pull_request:
    branches: [master]

###############
# 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

      ################################
      # Run Linter against code base #
      ################################
      - name: Lint Code Base
        uses: docker://github/super-linter:v3
        env:
          VALIDATE_ALL_CODEBASE: false
          DEFAULT_BRANCH: master
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

NOTE: Using the line:uses: docker://github/super-linter:v3 will pull the image down from DockerHub and run the GitHub Super-Linter. Using the line: uses: github/super-linter@v3 will build and compile the GitHub Super-Linter at build time. This can be far more costly in time...

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.

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

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

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

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.

Check out this article

Check out this snippet

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

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

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

• MIT License