Luacheck documentation¶

Contents:

List of warnings¶

Warnings produced by Luacheck are categorized using three-digit warning codes. Warning codes can be displayed in CLI output using --codes CLI option or codes config option. Errors also have codes starting with zero; unlike warnings, they can not be ignored.

Code	Description
011	A syntax error.
021	An invalid inline option.
022	An unpaired inline push directive.
023	An unpaired inline pop directive.
111	Setting an undefined global variable.
112	Mutating an undefined global variable.
113	Accessing an undefined global variable.
121	Setting a read-only global variable.
122	Setting a read-only field of a global variable.
131	Unused implicitly defined global variable.
142	Setting an undefined field of a global variable.
143	Accessing an undefined field of a global variable.
211	Unused local variable.
212	Unused argument.
213	Unused loop variable.
214	Used variable.
221	Local variable is accessed but never set.
231	Local variable is set but never accessed.
232	An argument is set but never accessed.
233	Loop variable is set but never accessed.
241	Local variable is mutated but never accessed.
311	Value assigned to a local variable is unused.
312	Value of an argument is unused.
313	Value of a loop variable is unused.
314	Value of a field in a table literal is unused.
321	Accessing uninitialized local variable.
331	Value assigned to a local variable is mutated but never accessed.
341	Mutating uninitialized local variable.
411	Redefining a local variable.
412	Redefining an argument.
413	Redefining a loop variable.
421	Shadowing a local variable.
422	Shadowing an argument.
423	Shadowing a loop variable.
431	Shadowing an upvalue.
432	Shadowing an upvalue argument.
433	Shadowing an upvalue loop variable.
511	Unreachable code.
512	Loop can be executed at most once.
521	Unused label.
531	Left-hand side of an assignment is too short.
532	Left-hand side of an assignment is too long.
541	An empty `do` `end` block.
542	An empty `if` branch.
551	An empty statement.
561	Cyclomatic complexity of a function is too high.
571	A numeric for loop goes from #(expr) down to 1 or less without negative step.
581	Negation of a relational operator- operator can be flipped.
582	Error prone negation: negation has a higher priority than equality.
611	A line consists of nothing but whitespace.
612	A line contains trailing whitespace.
613	Trailing whitespace in a string.
614	Trailing whitespace in a comment.
621	Inconsistent indentation (`SPACE` followed by `TAB`).
631	Line is too long.

Global variables (1xx)¶

For each file, Luacheck builds list of defined globals and fields which can be used there. By default only globals from Lua standard library are defined; custom globals can be added using --globals CLI option or globals config option, and version of standard library can be selected using --std CLI option or std config option. When an undefined global or field is set, mutated or accessed, Luacheck produces a warning.

Read-only globals¶

By default, most standard globals and fields are marked as read-only, so that setting them produces a warning. Custom read-only globals and fields can be added using --read-globals CLI option or read_globals config option, or using a custom set of globals. See Custom sets of globals

Globals and fields that are not read-only by default:

_G
_ENV (treated as a global by Luacheck)
package.path
package.cpath
package.loaded
package.preload
package.loaders
package.searchers

Implicitly defined globals¶

Luacheck can be configured to consider globals assigned under some conditions to be defined implicitly. When -d/--allow_defined CLI option or allow_defined config option is used, all assignments to globals define them; when -t/--allow_defined_top CLI option or allow_defined_top config option is used, assignments to globals in the top level function scope (also known as main chunk) define them. A warning is produced when an implicitly defined global is not accessed anywhere.

Modules¶

Files can be marked as modules using -m/--module CLI option or module config option to simulate semantics of the deprecated module function. Globals implicitly defined inside a module are considired part of its interface, are not visible outside and are not reported as unused. Assignments to other globals are not allowed, even to defined ones.

Unused variables (2xx) and values (3xx)¶

Luacheck generates warnings for all unused local variables except one named _. It also detects variables which are set but never accessed or accessed but never set.

“Unused hint” (214)¶

If a function argument starts with an underscore _, it recevies an “unused hint”, meaning that it’s intended to be left unused. If it is used, a 214 warning is generated.

Unused values and uninitialized variables¶

For each value assigned to a local variable, Luacheck computes set of expressions where it could be used. Warnings are produced for unused values (when a value can’t be used anywhere) and for accessing uninitialized variables (when no values can reach an expression). E.g. in the following snippet value assigned to foo on line 1 is unused, and variable bar is uninitialized on line 9:

local foo = expr1()
local bar

if condition() then
   foo = expr2()
   bar = expr3()
else
   foo = expr4()
   print(bar)
end

return foo, bar

Secondary values and variables¶

Unused value assigned to a local variable is secondary if its origin is the last item on the RHS of assignment, and another value from that item is used. Secondary values typically appear when result of a function call is put into locals, and only some of them are later used. For example, here value assigned to b is secondary, value assigned to c is used, and value assigned to a is simply unused:

local a, b, c = f(), g()

return c

A variable is secondary if all values assigned to it are secondary. In the snippet above, b is a secondary variable.

Warnings related to unused secondary values and variables can be removed using -s/--no-unused-secondaries CLI option or unused_secondaries config option.

Shadowing declarations (4xx)¶

Luacheck detects declarations of local variables shadowing previous declarations, unless the variable is named _. If the previous declaration is in the same scope as the new one, it is called redefining.

Note that it is not necessary to define a new local variable when overwriting an argument:

local function f(x)
   local x = x or "default" -- bad
end

local function f(x)
   x = x or "default" -- good
end

Control flow and data flow issues (5xx)¶

Unreachable code¶

Luacheck detects unreachable code. It also detects it if end of a loop block is unreachable, which means that the loop can be executed at most once:

for i = 1, 100 do
   -- Break statement is outside the `if` block,
   -- so that the loop always stops after the first iteration.
   if cond(i) then f() end break
end

Unused labels¶

Labels that are not used by any goto statements are reported as unused.

Unbalanced assignments¶

If an assignment has left side and right side with different lengths, the assignment is unbalanced and Luacheck warns about it.

An exception is initializing several local variables in a single statement while leaving some uninitialized:

local a, b, c = nil -- Effectively sets `a`, `b`, and `c` to nil, no warning.

Empty blocks¶

Luacheck warns about empty do end blocks and empty if branches (then else, then elseif, and then end).

Empty statements¶

In Lua 5.2+ semicolons are considered statements and can appear even when not following normal statements. Such semicolons produce Luacheck warnings as they are completely useless.

Cyclomatic complexity¶

If a limit is set using --max-cyclomatic-complexity CLI option or corresponding config or inline options, Luacheck warns about functions with too high cyclomatic complexity.

Reversed numeric for loops¶

Iterating a table in reverse using a numeric for loop going from #t to 1 requires a negative loop step. Luacheck warns about loops going from #(some expression) to 1 or a smaller constant when the loop step is not negative:

-- Warning for this loop:
-- numeric for loop goes from #(expr) down to 1 but loop step is not negative
for i = #t, 1 do
   print(t[i])
end

-- This loop is okay.
for i = #t, 1, -1 do
   print(t[i])
end

Error-prone and Unnecessary Negations¶

Negation has a higher priority than relational operators; (not x == 3) is interpreted as (not x) == 3, rather than not (x == 3).

Negating the output of a relational operator is unnecessary; each one has another operator that can be used directly:

not (x == y) => x ~= y not (x ~= y) => x == y not (x > y) => x <= y not (x >= y) => x < y not (x < y) => x >= y not (x <= y) => x > y

These replacements work for all numbers, but can fail with metatables or NaN’s.

Formatting issues (6xx)¶

Whitespace issues¶

Luacheck warns about trailing whitespace and inconsistent indentation (SPACE followed by TAB).

Some examples of trailing whitespace Luacheck finds:

-- Whitespace example.
print("Hello")

print("World")

Here:

Any tabs or spaces after either ) would be considered trailing.
Any tabs or spaces after the . in the comment would be considered trailing
Any tabs or spaces on the empty line between the two print statements would also be considered a form of trailing whitespace.

Trailing whitespace in any of these forms is useless, can be a nuisance to developers navigating around a file, and is forbidden in many formatting styles.

Line length limits¶

Luacheck warns about lines that are longer then some limit. Default limit is 120 characters. It’s possible to change this limit using --max-line-length CLI option or disable the check completely with --no-max-line-length; there are similar config and inline options.

Additionally, separate limits can be set for three different type of lines:

“String” lines have their line ending inside a string, typically a long string using [[...]] syntax.
“Comment” lines have their line ending inside a long comment (--[[...]]), or end with a short comment using normal --... syntax.
“Code” lines are all other lines.

These types of lines are limited using CLI options named --[no-]max-string-line-length, --[no-]max-comment-line-length, and --[no-]max-code-line-length, with similar config and inline options.

Command line interface¶

luacheck program accepts files, directories and rockspecs as arguments. They can be filtered using --include-files and --exclude-files options, see below.

Given a file, luacheck will check it.
Given -, luacheck will check stdin.
Given a directory, luacheck will check all files within it, selecting only files with .lua extension unless --include-files option is used. This feature requires LuaFileSystem (installed automatically if LuaRocks was used to install Luacheck).
Given a rockspec (a file with .rockspec extension), luacheck will check all files with .lua extension mentioned in the rockspec in build.install.lua, build.install.bin and build.modules tables.

The output of luacheck consists of separate reports for each checked file and ends with a summary:

$ luacheck src
Checking src/bad_code.lua                         5 warnings

    src/bad_code.lua:3:16: unused variable helper
    src/bad_code.lua:3:23: unused variable length argument
    src/bad_code.lua:7:10: setting non-standard global variable embrace
    src/bad_code.lua:8:10: variable opt was previously defined as an argument on line 7
    src/bad_code.lua:9:11: accessing undefined variable hepler

Checking src/good_code.lua                        OK
Checking src/python_code.lua                      1 error

    src/python_code.lua:1:6: expected '=' near '__future__'

Checking src/unused_code.lua                      9 warnings

    src/unused_code.lua:3:18: unused argument baz
    src/unused_code.lua:4:8: unused loop variable i
    src/unused_code.lua:5:13: unused variable q
    src/unused_code.lua:7:11: unused loop variable a
    src/unused_code.lua:7:14: unused loop variable b
    src/unused_code.lua:7:17: unused loop variable c
    src/unused_code.lua:13:7: value assigned to variable x is unused
    src/unused_code.lua:14:1: value assigned to variable x is unused
    src/unused_code.lua:22:1: value assigned to variable z is unused

Total: 14 warnings / 1 error in 4 files

luacheck chooses exit code as follows:

Exit code is 0 if no warnings or errors occurred.
Exit code is 1 if some warnings occurred but there were no syntax errors or invalid inline options.
Exit code is 2 if there were some syntax errors or invalid inline options.
Exit code is 3 if some files couldn’t be checked, typically due to an incorrect file name.
Exit code is 4 if there was a critical error (invalid CLI arguments, config, or cache file).

Command line options¶

Short options that do not take an argument can be combined into one, so that -qqu is equivalent to -q -q -u. For long options, both --option value or --option=value can be used.

Options taking several arguments can be used several times; --ignore foo --ignore bar is equivalent to --ignore foo bar.

Note that options that may take several arguments, such as --globals, should not be used immediately before positional arguments; given --globals foo bar file.lua, luacheck will consider all foo, bar and file.lua global and then panic as there are no file names left.

Option	Meaning
`-g \| --no-global`	Filter out warnings related to global variables.
`-u \| --no-unused`	Filter out warnings related to unused variables and values.
`-r \| --no-redefined`	Filter out warnings related to redefined variables.
`-a \| --no-unused-args`	Filter out warnings related to unused arguments and loop variables.
`-s \| --no-unused-secondaries`	Filter out warnings related to unused variables set together with used ones. See Secondary values and variables
`--no-self`	Filter out warnings related to implicit `self` argument.
`--std <std>`	Set standard globals, default is `max`. `<std>` can be one of: `max` - union of globals of Lua 5.1 - 5.4 and LuaJIT 2.x; `min` - intersection of globals of Lua 5.1 - 5.4 and LuaJIT 2.x; `lua51` - globals of Lua 5.1 without deprecated ones; `lua51c` - globals of Lua 5.1; `lua52` - globals of Lua 5.2; `lua52c` - globals of Lua 5.2 compiled with LUA_COMPAT_ALL; `lua53` - globals of Lua 5.3; `lua53c` - globals of Lua 5.3 compiled with LUA_COMPAT_5_2; `lua54` - globals of Lua 5.4; `lua54c` - globals of Lua 5.4 compiled with LUA_COMPAT_5_3; `luajit` - globals of LuaJIT 2.x; `ngx_lua` - globals of Openresty lua-nginx-module 0.10.10, including standard LuaJIT 2.x globals; `love` - globals added by LÖVE; `busted` - globals added by Busted 2.0, by default added for files ending with `_spec.lua` within `spec`, `test`, and `tests` subdirectories; `rockspec` - globals allowed in rockspecs, by default added for files ending with `.rockspec`; `luacheckrc` - globals allowed in Luacheck configs, by default added for files ending with `.luacheckrc`; `none` - no standard globals. See Sets of standard globals
`--globals [<name>] ...`	Add custom global variables or fields on top of standard ones. See Defining extra globals and fields
`--read-globals [<name>] ...`	Add read-only global variables or fields.
`--new-globals [<name>] ...`	Set custom global variables or fields. Removes custom globals added previously.
`--new-read-globals [<name>] ...`	Set read-only global variables or fields. Removes read-only globals added previously.
`--not-globals [<name>] ...`	Remove custom and standard global variables or fields.
`-c \| --compat`	Equivalent to `--std max`.
`-d \| --allow-defined`	Allow defining globals implicitly by setting them. See Implicitly defined globals
`-t \| --allow-defined-top`	Allow defining globals implicitly by setting them in the top level scope. See Implicitly defined globals
`-m \| --module`	Limit visibility of implicitly defined globals to their files. See Modules
`--max-line-length <length>`	Set maximum allowed line length (default: 120).
`--no-max-line-length`	Do not limit line length.
`--max-code-line-length <length>`	Set maximum allowed length for lines ending with code (default: 120).
`--no-max-code-line-length`	Do not limit code line length.
`--max-string-line-length <length>`	Set maximum allowed length for lines within a string (default: 120).
`--no-max-string-line-length`	Do not limit string line length.
`--max-comment-line-length <length>`	Set maximum allowed length for comment lines (default: 120).
`--no-max-comment-line-length`	Do not limit comment line length.
`--max-cyclomatic-complexity <limit>`	Set maximum cyclomatic complexity for functions.
`--no-max-cyclomatic-complexity`	Do not limit function cyclomatic complexity (default).
`--ignore \| -i <patt> [<patt>] ...`	Filter out warnings matching patterns.
`--enable \| -e <patt> [<patt>] ...`	Do not filter out warnings matching patterns.
`--only \| -o <patt> [<patt>] ...`	Filter out warnings not matching patterns.
`--config <config>`	Path to custom configuration file (default: `.luacheckrc`).
`--no-config`	Do not look up custom configuration file.
`--default-config <config>`	Default path to custom configuration file, to be used if `--[no-]config` is not used and `.luacheckrc` is not found. Default global location is: `%LOCALAPPDATA%\Luacheck\.luacheckrc` on Windows; `~/Library/Application Support/Luacheck/.luacheckrc` on OS X/macOS; `$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/luacheck/.luacheckrc` or `~/.config/luacheck/.luacheckrc` on other systems.
`--no-default-config`	Do not use fallback configuration file.
`--filename <filename>`	Use another filename in output, for selecting configuration overrides and for file filtering.
`--exclude-files <glob> [<glob>] ...`	Do not check files matching these globbing patterns. Recursive globs such as `*/.lua` are supported.
`--include-files <glob> [<glob>] ...`	Do not check files not matching these globbing patterns.
`--cache [<cache>]`	Path to cache file. (default: `.luacheckcache`). See Caching
`--no-cache`	Do not use cache.
`-j \| --jobs`	Check `<jobs>` files in parallel. Requires LuaLanes. Default number of jobs is set to number of available processing units.
`--formatter <formatter>`	Use custom formatter. `<formatter>` must be a module name or one of: `TAP` - Test Anything Protocol formatter; `JUnit` - JUnit XML formatter; `visual_studio` - MSBuild/Visual Studio aware formatter; `plain` - simple warning-per-line formatter; `default` - standard formatter.
`-q \| --quiet`	Suppress report output for files without warnings. `-qq` - Suppress output of warnings. `-qqq` - Only output summary.
`--codes`	Show warning codes.
`--ranges`	Show ranges of columns related to warnings.
`--no-color`	Do not colorize output.
`-v \| --version`	Show version of Luacheck and its dependencies and exit.
`-h \| --help`	Show help and exit.

Patterns¶

CLI options --ignore, --enable and --only and corresponding config options allow filtering warnings using pattern matching on warning codes, variable names or both. If a pattern contains a slash, the part before slash matches warning code and the part after matches variable name. Otherwise, if a pattern contains a letter or underscore, it matches variable name. Otherwise, it matches warning code. E.g.:

Pattern	Matching warnings
4.2	Shadowing declarations of arguments or redefining them.
.*_	Warnings related to variables with `_` suffix.
4.2/.*_	Shadowing declarations of arguments with `_` suffix or redefining them.

Unless already anchored, patterns matching variable names are anchored at both sides and patterns matching warning codes are anchored at their beginnings. This allows one to filter warnings by category (e.g. --only 1 focuses luacheck on global-related warnings).

Defining extra globals and fields¶

CLI options --globals, --new-globals, --read-globals, --new-read-globals, and corresponding config options add new allowed globals or fields. E.g. --read-globals foo --globals foo.bar allows accessing foo global and mutating its bar field. --not-globals also operates on globals and fields and removes definitions of both standard and custom globals.

Sets of standard globals¶

CLI option --stds allows combining built-in sets described above using +. For example, --std max is equivalent to --std=lua51c+lua52c+lua53c+luajit. Leading plus sign adds new sets to current one instead of replacing it. For instance, --std +love is suitable for checking files using LÖVE framework. Custom sets of globals can be defined by mutating global variable stds in config. See Custom sets of globals

Formatters¶

CLI option --formatter allows selecting a custom formatter for luacheck output. A custom formatter is a Lua module returning a function with three arguments: report as returned by luacheck module (see Report format), array of file names and table of options. Options contain values assigned to quiet, color, limit, codes, ranges and formatter options in CLI or config. Formatter function must return a string.

Caching¶

If LuaFileSystem is available, Luacheck can cache results of checking files. On subsequent checks, only files which have changed since the last check will be rechecked, improving run time significantly. Changing options (e.g. defining additional globals) does not invalidate cache. Caching can be enabled by using --cache <cache> option or cache config option. Using --cache without an argument or setting cache config option to true sets .luacheckcache as the cache file. Note that --cache must be used every time luacheck is run, not on the first run only.

Stable interface for editor plugins and tools¶

Command-line interface of Luacheck can change between minor releases. Starting from 0.11.0 version, the following interface is guaranteed at least till 1.0.0 version, and should be used by tools using Luacheck output, e.g. editor plugins.

Luacheck should be started from the directory containing the checked file.
File can be passed through stdin using - as argument or using a temporary file. Real filename should be passed using --filename option.
Plain formatter should be used. It outputs one issue (warning or error) per line.
To get precise error location, --ranges option can be used. Each line starts with real filename (passed using --filename), followed by :<line>:<start_column>-<end_column>:, where <line> is line number on which issue occurred and <start_column>-<end_column> is inclusive range of columns of token related to issue. Numbering starts from 1. If --ranges is not used, end column and dash is not printed.
To get warning and error codes, --codes option can be used. For each line, substring between parentheses contains three digit issue code, prefixed with E for errors and W for warnings. Lack of such substring indicates a fatal error (e.g. I/O error).
The rest of the line is warning message.

If compatibility with older Luacheck version is desired, output of luacheck --help can be used to get its version. If it contains string 0.<minor>.<patch>, where <minor> is at least 11 and patch is any number, interface described above should be used.

Configuration file¶

luacheck tries to load configuration from .luacheckrc file in the current directory. If not found, it will look for it in the parent directory and so on, going up until it reaches file system root. Path to config can be set using --config option, in which case it will be used during recursive loading. Paths within config are interpreted relatively to the directory from which it was loaded.

Config loading can be disabled using --no-config flag.

If neither of --config, --no-config, and --no-default-config options are used, luacheck will attempt to load configuration from value of --default-config option, or %LOCALAPPDATA%\Luacheck\.luacheckrc on Windows, ~/Library/Application Support/Luacheck/.luacheckrc on OS X/macOS, and $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/luacheck/.luacheckrc or ~/.config/luacheck/.luacheckrc on other systems by default. Paths within default config are interpreted relatively to the current directory.

Config is simply a Lua script executed by luacheck. It may set various options by assigning to globals or by returning a table with option names as keys.

Options loaded from config have the lowest priority: it’s possible to overwrite them with CLI options or inline options.

Config options¶

Option	Type	Default value
`quiet`	Integer in range 0..3	`0`
`color`	Boolean	`true`
`codes`	Boolean	`false`
`ranges`	Boolean	`false`
`formatter`	String or function	`"default"`
`cache`	Boolean or string	`false`
`jobs`	Positive integer	`1`
`exclude_files`	Array of strings	`{}`
`include_files`	Array of strings	(Include all files)
`global`	Boolean	`true`
`unused`	Boolean	`true`
`redefined`	Boolean	`true`
`unused_args`	Boolean	`true`
`unused_secondaries`	Boolean	`true`
`self`	Boolean	`true`
`std`	String or set of standard globals	`"max"`
`globals`	Array of strings or field definition map	`{}`
`new_globals`	Array of strings or field definition map	(Do not overwrite)
`read_globals`	Array of strings or field definition map	`{}`
`new_read_globals`	Array of strings or field definition map	(Do not overwrite)
`not_globals`	Array of strings	`{}`
`compat`	Boolean	`false`
`allow_defined`	Boolean	`false`
`allow_defined_top`	Boolean	`false`
`module`	Boolean	`false`
`max_line_length`	Number or `false`	`120`
`max_code_line_length`	Number or `false`	`120`
`max_string_line_length`	Number or `false`	`120`
`max_comment_line_length`	Number or `false`	`120`
`max_cyclomatic_complexity`	Number or `false`	`false`
`ignore`	Array of patterns (see Patterns)	`{}`
`enable`	Array of patterns	`{}`
`only`	Array of patterns	(Do not filter)

An example of a config which makes luacheck ensure that only globals from the portable intersection of Lua 5.1, Lua 5.2, Lua 5.3 and LuaJIT 2.0 are used, as well as disables detection of unused arguments:

std = "min"
ignore = {"212"}

Custom sets of globals¶

std option allows setting a custom standard set of globals using a table. This table can have two fields: globals and read_globals. Both of them should contain a field definition map defining some globals. The simplest way to define globals is to list their names:

std = {
   globals = {"foo", "bar"}, -- these globals can be set and accessed.
   read_globals = {"baz", "quux"} -- these globals can only be accessed.
}

For globals defined like this Luacheck will additionally consider any fields within them defined. To define a global with a restricted set of fields, use global name as key and a table as value. In that table, fields subtable can contain the fields in the same format:

std = {
   read_globals = {
      foo = { -- Defining read-only global `foo`...
         fields = {
            field1 = { -- `foo.field1` is now defined...
               fields = {
                  nested_field = {} -- `foo.field1.nested_field` is now defined...
               }
            },
            field2 = {} -- `foo.field2` is defined.
         }
      }
   }
}

Globals and fields can be marked read-only or not using read_only property with a boolean value. Property other_fields controls whether the global or field can also contain other unspecified fields:

std = {
   read_globals = {
      foo = { -- `foo` and its fields are read-only by default (because they are within `read_globals` table).
         fields = {
            bar = {
               read_only = false, -- `foo.bar` is not read-only, can be set.
               other_fields = true, -- `foo.bar[anything]` is defined and can be set or mutated (inherited from `foo.bar`).
               fields = {
                  baz = {read_only = true}, -- `foo.bar.baz` is read-only as an exception.
               }
            }
         }
      }
   }
}

Custom sets can be given names by mutating global stds variable, so that they can then be used in --std CLI option and std inline and config option.

stds.some_lib = {...}
std = "min+some_lib"

In config, globals, new_globals, read_globals, and new_read_globals can also contain definitions in same format:

read_globals = {
   server = {
      fields = {
         -- Allow mutating `server.sessions` with any keys...
         sessions = {read_only = false, other_fields = true},
         -- other fields...
      }
   },
   --- other globals...
}

Per-file and per-path overrides¶

The environment in which luacheck loads the config contains a special global files. When checking a file <path>, luacheck will override options from the main config with entries from files[<glob>] if <glob> matches <path>, applying entries for more general globs first. For example, the following config re-enables detection of unused arguments only for files in src/dir, but not for files ending with _special.lua:

std = "min"
ignore = {"212"}
files["src/dir"] = {enable = {"212"}}
files["src/dir/**/*_special.lua"] = {ignore = {"212"}}

Note that files table supports autovivification, so that

files["src/dir"].enable = {"212"}

and

files["src/dir"] = {enable = {"212"}}

are equivalent.

The configs are processed in order of increasing specificity. globals and read_globals will add to the set of allowed globals. not_globals can be used to remove previously allowed globals; new_globals and new_read_globals can be used to override the set of globals, wiping all previously allowed globals or read_globals respectively, and replacing them with new entries.

Default per-path std overrides¶

luacheck uses a set of default per-path overrides:

files["**/spec/**/*_spec.lua"].std = "+busted"
files["**/test/**/*_spec.lua"].std = "+busted"
files["**/tests/**/*_spec.lua"].std = "+busted"
files["**/*.rockspec"].std = "+rockspec"
files["**/*.luacheckrc"].std = "+luacheckrc"

Each of these can be overriden by setting a different std value for the corresponding key in files.

Inline options¶

Luacheck supports setting some options directly in the checked files using inline configuration comments. These inline options have the highest priority, overwriting both config options and CLI options.

An inline configuration comment is a short comment starting with luacheck: label, possibly after some whitespace. The body of the comment should contain comma separated options, where option invocation consists of its name plus space separated arguments. It can also contain notes enclosed in balanced parentheses, which are ignored. The following options are supported:

Option	Number of arguments
global	0
unused	0
redefined	0
unused args	0
unused secondaries	0
self	0
compat	0
module	0
allow defined	0
allow defined top	0
max line length	1 (with `no` and no arguments disables line length checks)
max code line length	1 (with `no` and no arguments disables code line length checks)
max string line length	1 (with `no` and no arguments disables string line length checks)
max comment line length	1 (with `no` and no arguments disables comment line length checks)
std	1
globals	0+
new globals	0+
read globals	0+
new read globals	0+
not globals	0+
ignore	0+ (without arguments everything is ignored)
enable	1+
only	1+

Options that take no arguments can be prefixed with no to invert their meaning. E.g. --luacheck: no unused args disables unused argument warnings.

Part of the file affected by inline option dependes on where it is placed. If there is any code on the line with the option, only that line is affected; otherwise, everything till the end of the current closure is. In particular, inline options at the top of the file affect all of it:

-- luacheck: globals g1 g2, ignore foo
local foo = g1(g2) -- No warnings emitted.

-- The following unused function is not reported.
local function f() -- luacheck: ignore
   -- luacheck: globals g3
   g3() -- No warning.
end

g3() -- Warning is emitted as the inline option defining g3 only affected function f.

For fine-grained control over inline option visibility use luacheck: push and luacheck: pop directives:

-- luacheck: push ignore foo
foo() -- No warning.
-- luacheck: pop
foo() -- Warning is emitted.

Luacheck module¶

Use local luacheck = require "luacheck" to import luacheck module. It contains the following functions:

luacheck.get_report(source): Given source string, returns analysis data (a table).
luacheck.process_reports(reports, options): Processes array of analysis reports and applies options. reports[i] uses options, options[i], options[i][1], options[i][2], … as options, overriding each other in that order. Options table is a table with fields similar to config options; see Config options. Analysis reports with field fatal are ignored. process_reports returns final report, see Report format.
luacheck.check_strings(sources, options): Checks array of sources using options, returns final report. Tables with field fatal within sources array are ignored.
luacheck.check_files(files, options): Checks array of files using options, returns final report. Open file handles can passed instead of filenames, in which case they will be read till EOF and closed.
luacheck.get_message(issue): Returns a string message for an issue, see Report format.

luacheck._VERSION contains Luacheck version as a string in MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH format.

Using luacheck as a function is equivalent to calling luacheck.check_files.

Report format¶

A final report is an array of file reports plus fields warnings, errors and fatals containing total number of warnings, errors and fatal errors, correspondingly.

A file report is an array of issues (warnings or errors). If a fatal error occurred while checking a file, its report will have fatal field containing error type and msg field containing error message.

An issue is a table with field code indicating its type (see List of warnings), and fields line, column and end_column pointing to the source of the warning. name field may contain name of related variable. Issues of some types can also have additional fields:

Codes	Additional fields
011	`msg` field contains syntax error message.
111	`module` field indicates that assignment is to a non-module global variable.
122, 142, 143	`indirect` field indicates that the global field was accessed using a local alias.
122, 142, 143	`field` field contains string representation of related global field.
211	`func` field indicates that unused variable is a function.
211	`recursive` field indicates that unused function is recursive.
211	`mutually_recursive` field is set for unused mutually recursive functions.
314	`field` field contains string representation of ununsed field or index.
011	`prev_line`, `prev_column`, and `prev_end_column` fields may point to an extra relevant location, such as the opening unpaired bracket.
4..	`prev_line`, `prev_column`, and `prev_end_column` fields contain location of the overwritten definition.
521	`label` field contains label name.
631	`line_ending` field contains `"comment"` or `"string"` if line ending is within a comment or a string.
631	`max_length` field contains maximum allowed line length.

Other fields may be present for internal reasons.

This is documentation for 0.26.0 version of Luacheck, a linter for Lua.