Can JSLint be configured using an external config file in the same manner as JSHint's .jshintrc?

Question

I\'ve been developing a lot of small web development projects in various IDEs, and find myself laboriously typing in jslint configuration headers to silence JSLint. Its warnings

Answer 1

I think the quick answer is that setting global settings for every file you JSLint is the job of your IDE or favorite text editor. That is, JSLint is essentially just a big javascript file. It doesn't care about file paths, etc, and won't look for a server-wide config.

I mean, you can change the options used when JSLint is called, but that essentially reduces to the same problem you have now.

So then the question is, if you don't like Visual Studio, what tools do you use? In VS, I've used this tool and liked it a good deal. I think that's different (as in not forked or related, but I could be wrong) than the one you found. In Sublime Text, there are two. I've been using Darren Deridder's, but I get the impression that it's the less popular of the two. Etc etc.

So this isn't a javascript/JSLint question so much as a JSLint wrapper question.

It should be said that JSLint's code is very clean, and it's easy to rig up your own process using Node or something similar. I've done it with JavaScript.NET, though I'd use Node if I was doing it again.

And I'd also suggest you consider keeping the file-by-file JSLint headers. I tend to do so, and it keeps your use "excuses" to a minimum, keeping your code tighter. It's way too easy to get a giant /*global ...*/ header line, for instance, if you have a lot of shared config info. It also means that when someone else uses a "shell" tool different than yours to JSLint your files, you know they're using pretty close to your intended accepted behaviors.

So the literal answer to your question is, "No, JSLint doesn't inherently support a box-wide config file." The longer answer is, "Tell us where you do like to work." ;^)

EDIT: Debated staying out of the usual 'Hint vs. 'Lint discussion, but I will quickly say I like how you're thinking. JSLint is more draconian, but JSLinted code means something more specific than code that's been JSHinted. I won't argue that more specific means better, per se, but I will say that I see JSLint's draconian-ness to be an advantage. It might not be the only way to do something, but there's nothing that Crockford's telling you that's a bad idea, and it's nice to get familiar with those conventions. In the parlance of my times, Crockfords's not wrong, Walter.

EDIT 2: So Brackets looks like it's come a long way since I last used it. Seems to have JSLint by default.

It looks like you can set global JSLint options using the jslint.options setting in your preferences file (and there might be/have been a goal to make that a more interactive UI eventually), like this...

{
    "debug.showErrorsInStatusBar": false,
    "styleActiveLine": true,
    "jslint.options": { "sloppy":true, "white":true, "browser": true }
}

And it does allow settings at the top of the file to override these settings.

This really is approaching a golden age of text editors. I still fall back on VIm a lot, but mainly live VS and Sublime Text, with even jEdit, Coda, and PhpStorm for specific tasks. Looks like this might be my new Sublime for Node & html frontend dev. The quick CSS edit is wonderful, though bindings will complicate it. Thanks!

Answer 2

While the previous excepted answer is an excellent one (and many thanks to its author for making it even better over time!), the world has moved on from JSLint. I'd recommend to anyone reading this very old question that you seriously consider chucking JSLint out of your development cycle in favor of its very effective successor, ESLint. For an even better experience, I'd suggest taking a hard look at the ES7 vs. TypeScript paths, with TSLint being your best option for TypeScript linting.

However, for the development experience that trumps even these modern libraries, go directly for Prettier.js. With Prettier, your linting woes become irrelevant, since Prettier will rewrite your code in an opinionated manner every time it's run.

For the best results with Prettier, add the packages "lint-staged" and "husky" to your dev-dependencies, then add the following in your package.json:

"husky": {
  "hooks": {
    "pre-commit": "lint-staged"
  }
},
"lint-staged": {
  "*.{js,json,css,md}": [
    "prettier --write",
    "git add"
  ]
},

This will force Prettier's auto-linting behavior to run every time Git's commit command runs.

I can't tell you what a relief using Prettier has been for the front-end development teams and projects I am responsible for. We've gone from code reviews bleeding with linting correction comments to zero almost immediately. Feedback from the teams has been universally positive.

The only modification I've made has been to the tabs-vs.-spaces setting. I've modified my .prettierrc.json file to select tabs instead of spaces, because use of spaces at different widths causes dirty git merge histories. You can't control the indentation of 250+ developers spread over multiple hemispheres, some of whom drop in and out of the project before you even know their names. So, setting tabs as the default indentation allows all of the developers to operate with the indentation they're comfortable with without modifying lines in Git. Here's my .prettierrc.json file, with some other slight modifications:

{
    "arrowParens": "always",
    "bracketSpacing": false,
    "singleQuote": true,
    "useTabs": true,
    "trailingComma": "none"
}