To ensure the Coding Standards of Submitty, we use a mixture of linting and static analysis for each specific programming language. Wikipedia defines linting as a “tool that analyzes source code to flag programming errors, bugs, stylistic errors, and suspicious constructs.” Static analysis constructs an abstract syntax tree of the program and is able to validate specific details such as the right number of types of parameters, functions return what they say they do, etc.

Be sure to start with the Initial Set Up installation instructions.

Python Linting

The Python code of Submitty is linted using flake8, flake8-bugbear, and pylint. You can run the Python linter locally (on your host operating system) by running the following command from the root level of Submitty source tree:

# from root level of Submitty repository using flake8
python3 -m flake8

# from root level of Submitty repository using pylint
python3 -m pylint --recursive=y .

Optionally, you can pass in a specific file or directory to only lint that file or directory, e.g.:

# from root level of Submitty repository...  to lint a specific file using flake:
python3 -m flake8 bin/generate_repos.py

# from root level of Submitty repository...  to lint a specific file using pylint:
python3 -m pylint bin/generate_repos.py

If you wish to automatically fix the basic linting problems, you can use black formatter:

# install black formatter
pip install git+https://github.com/psf/black

# formats all the files in that directory
black ./files/location/

# formats specified file
black ./location/file.py

PHP Linting

The PHP code of Submitty is linted using phpcs. The following instructions were tested for Windows:

First, you will need PHP installed on your host system first. See Installing PHP*
Next, you will need Composer installed on your host system as well. During this install, you will need to change settings in a php.ini file. Change the settings the prompt recommends.
Run composer global require slevomat/coding-standard and composer global require "squizlabs/php_codesniffer=*" inside your terminal.
cd to your site directory in your Submitty repository and run composer update.
Now run php vendor/bin/phpcs --extensions=php ./app inside your site directory. You can change ./app if you want to lint only a specific file.

PHP Static Analysis

The PHP code of Submitty is statically analyzed by phpstan. We recommend running it inside the VM as it is already installed on it. Simply vagrant ssh inside your Submitty folder and navigate to

/usr/local/submitty/GIT_CHECKOUT/Submitty/site/

Then run:

# from root level of Submitty repository
php site/vendor/bin/phpstan analyze -c site/phpstan.neon

# or if in the site/ directory of the Submitty repository
php vendor/bin/phpstan analyze

Unlike flake8 and phpcs, a path or file MUST be passed to phpstan.

phpstan maintains a list of known errors in the phpstan-baseline.neon file. If you fix one of these errors, you would need to regenerate this file which can be done by doing:

php vendor/bin/phpstan analyze app public/index.php socket/index.php --generate-baseline --memory-limit 2G

The argument --memory_limit 2G is necessary when phpstan will otherwise not have enough memory to generate a new baseline. You can see how much memory phpstan has been using with the -v flag

Submitty Test Script for PHP Linting

The submitty_test script is an alias for the SUBMITTY_TEST.sh script, similar to submitty_install_site. This script streamlines the process of PHP linting by performing the following steps:

Changes the directory to GIT_CHECKOUT/Submitty/site.
Installs Composer if not already installed (skips if Composer is already installed).
Executes the specified PHP linting command.
Returns to the original directory.

Commands:

phpcs: Runs PHP CodeSniffer.
phpstan: Runs PHP static analysis.
php-lint: Runs both PHP CodeSniffer and PHPStan.

Additional Arguments:

The submitty_test script accepts additional arguments, such as --memory_limit 2G.

Example Usage:

submitty_test php-lint --memory-limit 2G

JavaScript Linting

The frontend JavaScript code Submitty uses is linted using eslint. As with the PHP linter, submitty_test can be used as an alias for the SUBMITTY_TEST.sh script.

submitty_test js-lint

Alternatively, you can run eslint on your host system or on vagrant by navigating into the site/ directory and running:

npm run eslint

To have eslint attempt to automatically fix any detected problems:

npm run eslint:fix

If you wish to lint or fix a specific file, you will need to run the eslint executable directly, by doing:

node_modules/.bin/eslint [--fix] <file>

CSS Linting

CSS is linted using stylelint in Submitty to enforce a consistent code style. As with the PHP linter, submitty_test can be used as an alias for the SUBMITTY_TEST.sh script.

submitty_test css-lint

Alternatively, you can run stylelint on your host system or on vagrant by navigating into the site/ directory and running:

npm run css-stylelint

Stylelint can fix many CSS problems automatically by running:

npm run css-stylelint:fix

Developer > Development Instructions > Continuous Integration Testing

Linting / Static Analysis