Command Line Interface
To run ESLint on Node.js, you must have npm installed. If npm is not installed, follow the instructions here: https://www.npmjs.com/
Once npm is installed, run the following
npm i -g eslint
This installs the ESLint CLI from the npm repository. To run ESLint, use the following format:
eslint [options] [file|dir|glob]*
Such as:
eslint file1.js file2.js
or:
eslint lib/**
Please note that when passing a glob as a parameter, it will be expanded by your shell. The results of the expansion can vary depending on your shell, and its configuration. If you want to use node glob
syntax, you have to quote your parameter (using double quotes if you need it to run in Windows), as follows:
eslint "lib/**"
Options
The command line utility has several options. You can view the options by running eslint -h
.
eslint [options] file.js [file.js] [dir]
Basic configuration:
-c, --config path::String Use configuration from this file or shareable config
--no-eslintrc Disable use of configuration from .eslintrc
--env [String] Specify environments
--ext [String] Specify JavaScript file extensions - default: .js
--global [String] Define global variables
--parser String Specify the parser to be used
--parser-options Object Specify parser options
Caching:
--cache Only check changed files - default: false
--cache-file path::String Path to the cache file. Deprecated: use --cache-location - default: .eslintcache
--cache-location path::String Path to the cache file or directory
Specifying rules and plugins:
--rulesdir [path::String] Use additional rules from this directory
--plugin [String] Specify plugins
--rule Object Specify rules
Ignoring files:
--ignore-path path::String Specify path of ignore file
--no-ignore Disable use of ignore files and patterns
--ignore-pattern [String] Pattern of files to ignore (in addition to those in .eslintignore)
Using stdin:
--stdin Lint code provided on <STDIN> - default: false
--stdin-filename String Specify filename to process STDIN as
Handling warnings:
--quiet Report errors only - default: false
--max-warnings Int Number of warnings to trigger nonzero exit code - default: -1
Output:
-o, --output-file path::String Specify file to write report to
-f, --format String Use a specific output format - default: stylish
--color, --no-color Force enabling/disabling of color
Miscellaneous:
--init Run config initialization wizard - default: false
--fix Automatically fix problems
--debug Output debugging information
-h, --help Show help
-v, --version Output the version number
--no-inline-config Prevent comments from changing config or rules
--print-config path::String Print the configuration for the given file
Options that accept array values can be specified by repeating the option or with a comma-delimited list (other than --ignore-pattern
which does not allow the second style).
Example:
eslint --ext .jsx --ext .js lib/
eslint --ext .jsx,.js lib/
Basic configuration
-c
, --config
This option allows you to specify an additional configuration file for ESLint (see Configuring ESLint for more).
Example:
eslint -c ~/my-eslint.json file.js
This example uses the configuration file at ~/my-eslint.json
.
It also accepts a module ID of a sharable config.
Example:
eslint -c myconfig file.js
This example directly uses the sharable config eslint-config-myconfig
.
--no-eslintrc
Disables use of configuration from .eslintrc
and package.json
files.
Example:
eslint --no-eslintrc file.js
--env
This option enables specific environments. Details about the global variables defined by each environment are available on the configuration documentation. This option only enables environments; it does not disable environments set in other configuration files. To specify multiple environments, separate them using commas, or use the option multiple times.
Examples:
eslint --env browser,node file.js
eslint --env browser --env node file.js
--ext
This option allows you to specify which file extensions ESLint will use when searching for JavaScript files in the directories you specify. By default, it uses .js
as the only file extension.
Examples:
# Use only .js2 extension
eslint . --ext .js2
# Use both .js and .js2
eslint . --ext .js --ext .js2
# Also use both .js and .js2
eslint . --ext .js,.js2
Note: --ext
is only used when the arguments are directories. If you use glob patterns or file names, then --ext
is ignored.
For example, eslint lib/* --ext .js
will match all files within the lib/
directory, regardless of extension.
--global
This option defines global variables so that they will not be flagged as undefined by the no-undef
rule. Any specified global variables are assumed to be read-only by default, but appending :true
to a variable's name ensures that no-undef
will also allow writes. To specify multiple global variables, separate them using commas, or use the option multiple times.
Examples:
eslint --global require,exports:true file.js
eslint --global require --global exports:true
--parser
This option allows you to specify a parser to be used by eslint. By default, espree
will be used.
--parser-options
This option allows you to specify parser options to be used by eslint. Note that the available parser options are determined by the parser being used.
Examples:
echo '3 ** 4' | eslint --stdin --parser-options=ecmaVersion:6 # will fail with a parsing error
echo '3 ** 4' | eslint --stdin --parser-options=ecmaVersion:7 # succeeds, yay!
Caching
--cache
Store the info about processed files in order to only operate on the changed ones. The cache is stored in .eslintcache
by default. Enabling this option can dramatically improve ESLint's running time by ensuring that only changed files are linted.
Note: If you run ESLint with --cache
and then run ESLint without --cache
, the .eslintcache
file will be deleted. This is necessary because the results of the lint might change and make .eslintcache
invalid. If you want to control when the cache file is deleted, then use --cache-location
to specify an alternate location for the cache file.
--cache-file
Path to the cache file. If none specified .eslintcache
will be used. The file will be created in the directory where the eslint
command is executed. Deprecated: Use --cache-location
instead.
--cache-location
Path to the cache location. Can be a file or a directory. If no location is specified, .eslintcache
will be used. In that case, the file will be created in the directory where the eslint
command is executed.
If a directory is specified, a cache file will be created inside the specified folder. The name of the file will be based on the hash of the current working directory (CWD). e.g.: .cache_hashOfCWD
Important note: If the directory for the cache does not exist make sure you add a trailing /
on *nix systems or \
in windows. Otherwise the path will be assumed to be a file.
Example:
eslint "src/**/*.js" --cache --cache-location "/Users/user/.eslintcache/"
Specifying rules and plugins
--rulesdir
This option allows you to specify another directory from which to load rules files. This allows you to dynamically load new rules at run time. This is useful when you have custom rules that aren't suitable for being bundled with ESLint.
Example:
eslint --rulesdir my-rules/ file.js
The rules in your custom rules directory must follow the same format as bundled rules to work properly. You can also specify multiple locations for custom rules by including multiple --rulesdir
options:
eslint --rulesdir my-rules/ --rulesdir my-other-rules/ file.js
Note that, as with core rules and plugin rules, you still need to enable the rules in configuration or via the --rule
CLI option in order to actually run those rules during linting. Specifying a rules directory with --rulesdir
does not automatically enable the rules within that directory.
--plugin
This option specifies a plugin to load. You can omit the prefix eslint-plugin-
from the plugin name.
Before using the plugin, you have to install it using npm.
Examples:
eslint --plugin jquery file.js
eslint --plugin eslint-plugin-mocha file.js
--rule
This option specifies rules to be used. These rules will be merged with any rules specified with configuration files. (You can use --no-eslintrc
to change that behavior.) To define multiple rules, separate them using commas, or use the option multiple times. The levn format is used for specifying the rules.
If the rule is defined within a plugin, you have to prefix the rule ID with the plugin name and a /
.
Examples:
eslint --rule 'quotes: [2, double]'
eslint --rule 'guard-for-in: 2' --rule 'brace-style: [2, 1tbs]'
eslint --rule 'jquery/dollar-sign: 2'
Ignoring files
--ignore-path
This option allows you to specify the file to use as your .eslintignore
. By default, ESLint looks in the current working directory for .eslintignore
. You can override this behavior by providing a path to a different file.
Example:
eslint --ignore-path tmp/.eslintignore file.js
eslint --ignore-path .gitignore file.js
--no-ignore
Disables excluding of files from .eslintignore
, --ignore-path
and --ignore-pattern
.
Example:
eslint --no-ignore file.js
--ignore-pattern
This option allows you to specify patterns of files to ignore (in addition to those in .eslintignore
). You can repeat the option to provide multiple patterns. The supported syntax is the same as in the .eslintignore
file. You should quote your patterns in order to avoid shell interpretation of glob patterns.
Example:
eslint --ignore-pattern '/lib/' --ignore-pattern '/src/vendor/*' .
Using stdin
--stdin
This option tells ESLint to read and lint source code from STDIN instead of from files. You can use this to pipe code to ESLint.
Example:
cat myfile.js | eslint --stdin
--stdin-filename
This option allows you to specify a filename to process STDIN as. This is useful when processing files from STDIN and you have rules which depend on the filename.
Example
cat myfile.js | eslint --stdin --stdin-filename=myfile.js
Handling warnings
--quiet
This option allows you to disable reporting on warnings. If you enable this option, only errors are reported by ESLint.
Example:
eslint --quiet file.js
--max-warnings
This option allows you to specify a warning threshold, which can be used to force ESLint to exit with an error status if there are too many warning-level rule violations in your project.
Normally, if ESLint runs and finds no errors (only warnings), it will exit with a success exit status. However, if --max-warnings
is specified and the total warning count is greater than the specified threshold, ESLint will exit with an error status. Specifying a threshold of -1
or omitting this option will prevent this behavior.
Example:
eslint --max-warnings 10 file.js
Output
-o
, --output-file
Enable report to be written to a file.
Example:
eslint -o ./test/test.html
When specified, the given format is output into the provided file name.
-f
, --format
This option specifies the output format for the console. Possible formats are:
Example:
eslint -f compact file.js
You can also use a custom formatter from the command line by specifying a path to the custom formatter file.
Example:
eslint -f ./customformat.js file.js
When specified, the given format is output to the console. If you'd like to save that output into a file, you can do so on the command line like so:
eslint -f compact file.js > results.txt
This saves the output into the results.txt
file.
--color
, --no-color
This option forces the enabling/disabling of colorized output. You can use this to override the default behavior, which is to enable colorized output unless no TTY is detected, such as when piping eslint
through cat
or less
.
Examples:
eslint --color file.js | cat
eslint --no-color file.js
Miscellaneous
--init
This option will start config initialization wizard. It's designed to help new users quickly create .eslintrc file by answering a few questions, choosing a popular style guide, or inspecting your source files and attempting to automatically generate a suitable configuration.
The resulting configuration file will be created in the current directory.
--fix
This option instructs ESLint to try to fix as many issues as possible. The fixes are made to the actual files themselves and only the remaining unfixed issues are output. Not all problems are fixable using this option, and the option does not work in these situations:
- This option throws an error when code is piped to ESLint.
- This option has no effect on code that uses processors.
--debug
This option outputs debugging information to the console. This information is useful when you're seeing a problem and having a hard time pinpointing it. The ESLint team may ask for this debugging information to help solve bugs.
-h
, --help
This option outputs the help menu, displaying all of the available options. All other options are ignored when this is present.
-v
, --version
This option outputs the current ESLint version onto the console. All other options are ignored when this is present.
--no-inline-config
This option prevents inline comments like /*eslint-disable*/
or /*global foo*/
from having any effect. This allows you to set an ESLint config without files modifying it. All inline config comments are ignored, e.g.:
/*eslint-disable*/
/*eslint-enable*/
/*global*/
/*eslint*/
/*eslint-env*/
// eslint-disable-line
// eslint-disable-next-line
Example:
eslint --no-inline-config file.js
--print-config
This option outputs the configuration to be used for the file passed. When present, no linting is performed and only config-related options are valid.
Example:
eslint --print-config file.js
Ignoring files from linting
ESLint supports .eslintignore
files to exclude files from the linting process when ESLint operates on a directory. Files given as individual CLI arguments will be exempt from exclusion. The .eslintignore
file is a plain text file containing one pattern per line. It can be located in any of the target directory's ancestors; it will affect files in its containing directory as well as all sub-directories. Here's a simple example of a .eslintignore
file:
node_modules/*
**/vendor/*.js
A more detailed breakdown of supported patterns and directories ESLint ignores by default can be found in Configuring ESLint.