linters.vim - Check your code for lint as you write

Linting tools like JSHint and pylint are excellent, but only if you run them constantly. You can run them manually when you are finished coding, but then you have to go back and edit all of your files again. You can run them as part of git hooks, or as part of a make run, but even that is ages after you have finished writing that section of code. The best time to run a linter is all of the time.

linters.vim runs linters over your code every time you save your file. Any errors found are displayed instantly in the quickfix window. Writing clean code becomes necessary - otherwise your editor will complain at you!

Installing

The easiest way to install is through pathogen.vim. Install pathogen, and then:

git clone https://bitbucket.org/tim_heap/linters.vim ~/.vim/bundle/linters

Otherwise, copy the plugin/linters.vim file to your ~/.vim/plugin/ directory. It only needs the one file.

Using

A number of languages are already supported (see Supported languages below). For any of these languages, simply write your code as normal. As soon as you save your changes, the linter is run. Any errors or warnings are displayed in the quickfix window.

To jump to the first error, press :cc in normal mode. You can navigate between errors using [q and ]q. Save your changes to lint the file again.

Supported languages

The following languages are currently supported:

• JavaScript, using JSHint
• LESS, using the LESS CSS compiler
• Python, using either pylint or pyflakes
• Haskell, using hlint

Adding new languages

Adding support for new languages is easy. There are two ways: adding the definition to your ~/.vimrc file, or adding it to this plugin itself. In either method, you will need three things:

• The vim filetype of the language. Press :set filetype to see what Vim thinks a language is called.

• The command to run to invoke the linter program. This should have two placeholders, the first one for the input file to lint, and the second one for the output file containing any errors. Shell piping and redirection is allowed. The JSHint linter command follows, for reference:

  jshint %s > %s
  

• A list of errorformat style strings that your linter will print. This takes after the Vim errorformat setting, but instead of having a list of formats separated with spaces, this is a Vimscript list. See the Vim help on errorformat for the syntax of this line, just ignore the section on escaping. For example, the error format list for pylint is:

  [
  \    "%t:  %l,%c:%m",
  \    "%t: %l,%c:%m",
  \    "%t:%l,%c:%m",
  \]
  

You will likely want to wrap any definition in a check to see if the linter exists - not everyone will have every linter. For example:

if executable("jshint")
    " Add the linter definition here
endif

Adding via ~/.vimrc

To add linters in your ~/.vimrc, add them to the g:linters_extra array:

let g:linters_extra = []

if executable('jshint')
    let g:linters_extra += [
    \   ['javascript', 'jshint %s > %s', ["%f: line %l, col %c, %m"]],
    \]
endif

Adding new definitions to linters.vim

Pull requests for new languages and linters are welcome! If you would like to contribute a new definition, Edit plugin/linters.vim and add your linter definition there. The syntax is:

if executable('jshint')
    call s:DefineLinter('javascript', 'jshint %s > %s',
        ["%f: line %l, col %c, %m"])
endif

Configuration

g:linters_automatic_on_save is a global flag for enabling/disabling the automatic running of the linters plugin on every write. Set this to 0 if you do not want to lint on every write. Linting can be done manually by running call linters#run()

g:linters_disabled_filetypes can contain a list of filetypes that automatic linting should be disabled for. If you want to stop linting just one filetype, but continue linting others, add the filetype to this list.

let g:linters_disabled_filetypes = ['javascript']

g:linters_extra can contain a list of extra linter definitions, to append or override to the existing set. It should be a list of triples of the format:

let g:linters_extra = [
\    ['filetype', 'command', ['error', 'format', 'strings']]
\]

See the section above on Adding new languages for more information

Todo

• Work out if there is a better to run the linter than hooking in to BufWritePost on every file open. This seems inefficient.

• Add more language support - pull requests welcome!

License

This plugin is released in to the public domain. Do what you will with it