pymultilint

Multilint (for Python)

A utility tying together multiple linting and other code quality tools

Intro

Multilint allows running several code quality tools under the same interface. This is convenient as it saves time on writing multiple linter / formatter / checker invocations every time in a project.

Installation

Since there is an existing project called multilint, this Multilint can be installed as pymultilint:

$ pip3 install pymultilint

Usage

Multilint exposes a CLI entry point:

$ multilint [paths ...]

It can optionally take a set of starting paths. There are no CLI options, as Multilint strives to have all of its configuration codified (see Configurability).

Alternatively, Multilint is also usable via its API - either the main method, or the Multilint class.

Supported Tools

Currently, Multilint integrates the following code quality tools:

• Autoflake - removes unused imports and unused variables as identified by Pyflakes
• Isort - sorts imports according to specified orders
• Black - the self-proclaimed "uncompromising code formatter" - formats Python source with an opinionated style
• Mypy - static type checker for Python
• Pylint - general best practices linter
• Pydocstyle - in-source documentation best practices linter
• Pyupgrade - upgrades Python syntax to the latest for the specified version

Configurability

Additionally, for tools that do not currently support configuration via pyproject.toml(PEP-621), Multilint exposes a configuration interface for them. This allows for centralized codification of configuration of all code quality tools being used in a project.

Example relevant sections from a pyproject.toml:

[tool.autoflake]
recursive = true
in_place = true
ignore_init_module_imports = true
remove_all_unused_imports = true
remove_unused_variables = true
verbose = true
srcs_paths = ["somepackage"]

[tool.mypy]
src_paths = ["someotherpackage"]

[tool.multilint]
tool_order = [
  "autoflake",
  "isort",
  "pyupgrade",
  "black",
  "mypy",
  "pylint",
  "pydocstyle"
]
src_paths = ["."]

At the time of writing of this README (2020-01-31), neither Autoflake nor Mypy support configuration via pyproject.toml. While support for each may or may not be added at some point in the future, with multilint configuring these tools is possible today.

Currently, the only two supported configuration option for Multilint are:

• tool_order, which defines the execution order of supported tools, and
• src_paths, which specifies the source paths (can be files and directories) for Multilint to operate on.

Each integrated tool additionally supports src_dirs as an override, in case it is desired to target a specific tool at a different set of files / directories.

Extending Multilint

Support for more tools may be added by subclassing the ToolRunner class and overriding the .run(...) method.

There are some utilities provided, such as:

• A logger that masquerades as a TextIO object to allow capturing tool output from within and wrapping it with preferred logging
• A dictionary for tool configuration that is automatically available in the ToolRunner class, as long as the tool is registered in
  • The Tool enum,
  • The TOOL_RUNNERS mapping, and declared
  • The DEFAULT_TOOL_ORDER class variable of Multilint.

Documentation about adding support for more tools to Multilint may be added in the future.