perlcritic

perlcritic is a comprehensive static source code analysis engine for Perl that enforces coding standards and best practices. Based primarily on Damian Conway's "Perl Best Practices" book, it serves as an extensible framework for creating and applying consistent coding standards across Perl projects.

Key Features:

Extensive Policy Library: Over 100 built-in policies covering bugs, security, maintainability, complexity, and code style
Configurable Severity Levels: Five severity levels (1-5) allowing fine-tuned control over policy enforcement
Best Practices Foundation: Policies based on "Perl Best Practices" and community-established coding standards
Theme-Based Organization: Policies grouped by themes like bugs, security, performance, and maintainability
Inline Annotations: Selective policy disabling through source code comments and annotations
Extensible Framework: Support for custom policies and organizational coding standards
Detailed Reporting: Comprehensive violation reports with explanations and suggested fixes
Flexible Configuration: Project-specific configuration files for team-wide standards enforcement

perlcritic documentation

Version in MegaLinter: 1.156
Visit Official Web Site
See How to configure perlcritic rules
See How to disable perlcritic rules in files
See Index of problems detected by perlcritic

Configuration in MegaLinter

Enable perlcritic by adding PERL_PERLCRITIC in ENABLE_LINTERS variable
Disable perlcritic by adding PERL_PERLCRITIC in DISABLE_LINTERS variable

Variable	Description	Default value
PERL_PERLCRITIC_ARGUMENTS	User custom arguments to add in linter CLI call Ex: `-s --foo "bar"`
PERL_PERLCRITIC_COMMAND_REMOVE_ARGUMENTS	User custom arguments to remove from command line before calling the linter Ex: `-s --foo "bar"`
PERL_PERLCRITIC_FILTER_REGEX_INCLUDE	Custom regex including filter Ex: `(src\\|lib)`	Include every file
PERL_PERLCRITIC_FILTER_REGEX_EXCLUDE	Custom regex excluding filter Ex: `(test\\|examples)`	Exclude no file
PERL_PERLCRITIC_CLI_LINT_MODE	Override default CLI lint mode - `file`: Calls the linter for each file - `project`: Call the linter from the root of the project	`file`
PERL_PERLCRITIC_FILE_EXTENSIONS	Allowed file extensions. `"*"` matches any extension, `""` matches empty extension. Empty list excludes all files Ex: `[".py", ""]`	`[".pl", ".pm", ".t", ""]`
PERL_PERLCRITIC_FILE_NAMES_REGEX	File name regex filters. Regular expression list for filtering files by their base names using regex full match. Empty list includes all files Ex: `["Dockerfile(-.+)?", "Jenkinsfile"]`	Include every file
PERL_PERLCRITIC_PRE_COMMANDS	List of bash commands to run before the linter	None
PERL_PERLCRITIC_POST_COMMANDS	List of bash commands to run after the linter	None
PERL_PERLCRITIC_UNSECURED_ENV_VARIABLES	List of env variables explicitly not filtered before calling PERL_PERLCRITIC and its pre/post commands	None
PERL_PERLCRITIC_DISABLE_ERRORS	Run linter but consider errors as warnings	`false`
PERL_PERLCRITIC_DISABLE_ERRORS_IF_LESS_THAN	Maximum number of errors allowed	`0`
PERL_PERLCRITIC_CLI_EXECUTABLE	Override CLI executable	`['perlcritic']`

MegaLinter Flavors

This linter is available in the following flavors

	Flavor	Description	Embedded linters	Info
	all	Default MegaLinter Flavor	126

Behind the scenes

How are identified applicable files

File extensions: .pl, .pm, .t, ``
Detected file content (regex): ^#!/usr/bin/env perl, ^#!/usr/bin/perl

How the linting is performed

perlcritic is called one time by identified file (file CLI lint mode)

Example calls

perlcritic myfile.pl

Help content

Usage:
      perlcritic [-12345 | --brutal | --cruel | --harsh | --stern | --gentle]
                 [--severity number | name] [{-p | --profile} file | --noprofile]
                 [--top [ number ]] [--theme expression] [--include pattern]
                 [--exclude pattern] [{-s | --single-policy} pattern]
                 [--only | --noonly] [--profile-strictness {warn|fatal|quiet}]
                 [--force | --noforce] [--statistics] [--statistics-only]
                 [--count | -C] [--verbose {number | format}] [--allow-unsafe]
                 [--color | --nocolor] [--pager pager] [--quiet]
                 [--color-severity-highest color_specification]
                 [--color-severity-high color_specification]
                 [--color-severity-medium color_specification]
                 [--color-severity-low color_specification]
                 [--color-severity-lowest color_specification]
                 [--files-with-violations | -l]
                 [--files-without-violations | -L]
                 [--program-extensions file_name_extension]
                 {FILE | DIRECTORY | STDIN}

      perlcritic --profile-proto

      perlcritic { --list | --list-enabled | --list-themes | --doc pattern [...] }

      perlcritic { --help | --options | --man | --version }

Installation on mega-linter Docker image

Dockerfile commands :

# renovate: datasource=github-tags depName=skaji/cpm
ARG PERL_PERLCRITIC_VERSION=0.997024

RUN curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/skaji/cpm/refs/tags/${PERL_PERLCRITIC_VERSION}/cpm | perl - install -g --show-build-log-on-failure --without-build --without-test --without-runtime Perl::Critic \
    && rm -rf /root/.perl-cpm