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Configuration

Mega-Linter configuration variables can be defined in a .mega-linter.yml file at the root of the repository or with environment variables. You can see an example config file in this repo: .mega-linter.yml

Configuration is assisted with auto-completion and validation in most commonly used IDEs, thanks to JSON schema stored on schemastore.org

  • VsCode: You need a VsCode extension like Red Hat YAML
  • IDEA family: Auto-completion natively supported

Assisted configuration

Common variables

ENV VAR Default Value Notes
ADDITIONAL_EXCLUDED_DIRECTORIES [] List of additional excluded directory basenames. They are excluded at any nested level.
APPLY_FIXES none Activates formatting and auto-fixing (more info)
DEFAULT_BRANCH master The name of the repository default branch. Warning: In new github repositories, master branch is named main, so you need to override this value with main
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.
DISABLE List of disabled descriptors keys (more info)
DISABLE_LINTERS List of disabled linters keys (more info)
ENABLE List of enabled descriptors keys (more info)
ENABLE_LINTERS List of enabled linters keys (more info)
EXCLUDED_DIRECTORIES [...many values...] List of excluded directory basenames. They are excluded at any nested level.
EXTENDS Base mega-linter.yml config file(s) to extend local configuration from. Can be a single URL or a list of .mega-linter.yml config files URLs
FAIL_IF_MISSING_LINTER_IN_FLAVOR false If set to true, Mega-Linter fails if a linter is missing in the selected flavor
FILTER_REGEX_EXCLUDE none Regular expression defining which files will be excluded from linting (more info) .ex: .*src/test.*)
FILTER_REGEX_INCLUDE all Regular expression defining which files will be processed by linters (more info) .ex: .*src/.*)
FLAVOR_SUGGESTIONS true Provides suggestions about different Mega-Linter flavors to use to improve runtime performances
FORMATTERS_DISABLE_ERRORS true Formatter errors will be reported as errors (and not warnings) if this variable is set to false
GITHUB_WORKSPACE `` Base directory for REPORT_OUTPUT_FOLDER, for user-defined linter rules location, for location of linted files if DEFAULT_WORKSPACE is not set
IGNORE_GENERATED_FILES false If set to true, Mega-Linter will skip files containing @generated marker but without @not-generated marker (more info at https://generated.at)
IGNORE_GITIGNORED_FILES false If set to true, Mega-Linter will skip files ignored by git using .gitignore file
JAVASCRIPT_DEFAULT_STYLE standard Javascript default style to check/apply. standard,prettier
LINTER_RULES_PATH .github/linters Directory for all linter configuration rules.
Can be a local folder or a remote URL (ex: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/some_org/some_repo/mega-linter-rules )
LOG_FILE mega-linter.log The file name for outputting logs. All output is sent to the log file regardless of LOG_LEVEL.
LOG_LEVEL INFO How much output the script will generate to the console. One of INFO, DEBUG, WARNING or ERROR.
MARKDOWN_DEFAULT_STYLE markdownlint Markdown default style to check/apply. markdownlint,remark-lint
MEGALINTER_CONFIG .mega-linter.yml Name of Mega-Linter configuration file. Can be defined remotely, in that case set this environment variable with the remote URL of .mega-linter.yml config file
PARALLEL true Process linters in parallel to improve overall Mega-Linter performance. If true, linters of same language or formats are grouped in the same parallel process to avoid lock issues if fixing the same files
PLUGINS [] List of plugin urls to install and run during Mega-Linter run
POST_COMMANDS [] Custom bash commands to run after linters
PRE_COMMANDS [] Custom bash commands to run before linters
PRINT_ALPACA true Enable printing alpaca image to console
REPORT_OUTPUT_FOLDER ${GITHUB_WORKSPACE}/report Directory for generating report files
SHOW_ELAPSED_TIME false Displays elapsed time in reports
SHOW_SKIPPED_LINTERS true Displays all disabled linters mega-linter could have run
TYPESCRIPT_DEFAULT_STYLE standard Typescript default style to check/apply. standard,prettier
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.

Activation and deactivation

Mega-Linter have all linters enabled by default, but allows to enable only some, or disable only some

  • If ENABLE is not set, all descriptors are activated by default. If set, all linters of listed descriptors will be activated by default
  • If ENABLE_LINTERS is set, only listed linters will be processed
  • If DISABLE is set, the linters in the listed descriptors will be skipped
  • If DISABLE_LINTERS is set, the listed linters will be skipped

Examples:

  • Run all javascript and groovy linters except STANDARD javascript linter
ENABLE: JAVASCRIPT,GROOVY
DISABLE_LINTERS: JAVASCRIPT_STANDARD
  • Run all linters except PHP linters (PHP_BUILTIN, PHP_PHPCS, PHP_PHPSTAN, PHP_PSALM)
DISABLE: PHP
  • Run all linters except PHP_PHPSTAN and PHP_PSALM linters
DISABLE_LINTERS: PHP_PHPSTAN,PHP_PSALM

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 You can apply filters to a single linter by defining variable <LINTER_KEY>_FILTER_REGEX_INCLUDE and <LINTER_KEY>_FILTER_REGEX_EXCLUDE

Examples:

  • Lint only src folder: FILTER_REGEX_INCLUDE: (src/)
  • Do not lint files inside test and example folders: FILTER_REGEX_EXCLUDE: (test/|examples/)
  • Do not lint javascript files inside test folder: FILTER_REGEX_EXCLUDE: (test/.*\.js)

Apply fixes

Mega-linter is able to apply fixes provided by linters. To use this capability, you need 3 env variables defined at top level

  • APPLY_FIXES: all to apply fixes of all linters, or a list of linter keys (ex: JAVASCRIPT_ES,MARKDOWN_MARKDOWNLINT)

Only for GitHub Action Workflow file if you use it:

  • APPLY_FIXES_EVENT: all, push, pull_request, none (use none in case of use of Updated sources reporter)
  • APPLY_FIXES_MODE: commit to create a new commit and push it on the same branch, or pull_request to create a new PR targeting the branch.

Notes:

  • You can use Updated sources reporter if you do not want fixes to be automatically applied on git branch, but download them in a zipped file and manually extract them in your project
  • If used, APPLY_FIXES_EVENT and APPLY_FIXES_MODE can not be defined in .mega-linter.ymlconfig file, they must be set as environment variables
  • If you use APPLY_FIXES, add the following line in your .gitignore file
report/

Linter specific variables

See variables related to a single linter behavior in linters documentations

Pre-commands

Mega-Linter can run custom commands before running linters (for example, installing an plugin required by one of the linters you use)

Example in .mega-linter.yml config file

PRE_COMMANDS:
  - command: npm install eslint-plugin-whatever
    cwd: "root"        # Will be run at the root of Mega-Linter docker image
  - command: echo "pre-test command has been called"
    cwd: "workspace"   # Will be run at the root of the workspace (usually your repository root)

Post-commands

Mega-Linter can run custom commands after running linters (for example, running additional tests)

Example in .mega-linter.yml config file

POST_COMMANDS:
  - command: npm run test
    cwd: "workspace"   # Will be run at the root of the workspace (usually your repository root)