ex_check

v0.9.0

ex_check v0.9.0 mix check View Source

One task to efficiently run all code analysis & testing tools in an Elixir project.

Tools

Following curated tools are configured by default:

  • :compiler - produces compilation warnings that allow to early detect bugs & typos in the code eg. an attempt to call non-existing or deprecated function

  • :formatter - ensures that all the code follows the same basic formatting rules such as maximum number of chars in a line or function indentation

  • :ex_unit - starts the application in test mode and runs all runtime tests against it (defined as test modules or embedded in docs as doctests)

  • :credo - ensures that all the code follows a further established set of software design, consistency, readability & misc rules and conventions (still statical)

  • :sobelow - performs security-focused static analysis mainly focused on the Phoenix framework, but also detecting vulnerable dependencies in arbitrary Mix projects

  • :dialyzer - performs static code analysis around type mismatches and other issues that are commonly detected by static language compilers

  • :ex_doc - compiles the project documentation in order to ensure that there are no issues that would make it impossible for docs to get collected and assembled

You can disable or adjust curated tools as well as add custom ones via the configuration file.

Workflow

  1. :compiler tool is run before others in order to compile the project just once and to avoid reprinting the compilation error multiple times.

  2. If the compilation succeded (even if with warnings), further tools are run in parallel while their output is streamed live one by one for instant insight.

  3. Output from tools that have failed gets reprinted for sake of easily reading into them all at once and identifying all project issues in one go.

  4. Summary is presented with a list of all tools that have failed, succeeded or were skipped due to missing files or project dependencies.

  5. If any of the tools have failed, the Erlang system gets requested to emit exit status 1 upon shutdown in order to make the CI build fail.

Tool execution

Tools are run in separate processes. This has following benefits:

  • allows to run tools in parallel & stream their output
  • catches exit statuses in order to detect failures
  • enables running Mix tasks in multiple envs
  • enables including non-Elixir scripts and tools in the check

The downside is that tools will be run outside of TTY which will usually result in disabling ANSI formatting. This issue is fixed in different ways depending on Elixir version:

  • Elixir 1.9 and newer: patches all Elixir commands and Mix tasks with --erl-config option to load the Erlang configuration provided by ex_check that sets the ansi_enabled flag

  • older versions: patches Mix tasks with --eval option to set the ansi_enabled flag

Configuration file

Check configuration may be adjusted with the optional .check.exs file. Task will load the configuration in following order:

  1. Default stock configuration.
  2. .check.exs in user home directory.
  3. .check.exs in umbrella root directory when called from sub-project.
  4. .check.exs in current project directory.

Configuration file should evaluate to keyword list with following options:

  • :parallel - toggles running tools in parallel (default: true)
  • :skipped - toggles printing skipped tools in summary (default: true)
  • :tools - a list of tools to run (default: curated tools)

Each tool is a {:tool_name, opts} tuple where opts is a keyword list with following options:

  • :command - command as string or list of strings (executable + arguments)
  • :cd - directory (relative to cwd) to change to before running the command
  • :env - environment variables as map with string keys & values
  • :enable_ansi - toggles extending Elixir/Mix commands to have ANSI enabled (default: true)
  • :enabled - toggles including already defined tools in the check (default: true)
  • :order - integer that controls the order in which tool output is presented (default: 0)
  • :require_deps - list of package atoms that must be present or tool will be skipped
  • :require_files - list of file name strings that must be present or tool will be skipped

You may also use one of the shorthand tool tuple forms:

  • {:tool_name, enabled} where enabled is a boolean that translates into the :enabled option
  • {:tool_name, command} where command is a binary that translates into the :command option

Use the mix check.gen.config task to generate sample configuration that comes with well-commented examples to help you get started.

Command line options

  • --only dialyzer --only credo ... - run only specified check(s)
  • --except dialyzer --except credo ... - don't run specified check(s)
  • --no-parallel - don't run tools in parallel
  • --no-skipped - don't print skipped tools in summary