Type Checking

Semantic lint rules

Some TSLint rules go further than linting code syntax. Semantic rules use the compiler’s program APIs to inspect static types and validate code patterns.

CLI

When using the CLI, use the --project flag and specify your tsconfig.json to enable rules that work with the type checker. TSLint will lint all files included in your project as specified in tsconfig.json.

tslint --project tsconfig.json --config tslint.json # lints every file in your project
tslint -p . -c tslint.json # shorthand of the command above
tslint -p tsconfig.json --exclude '**/*.d.ts' # lint all files in the project excluding declaration files
tslint -p tsconfig.json **/*.ts # ignores files in tsconfig.json and uses the provided glob instead
Library

To enable rules that work with the type checker, a TypeScript program object must be passed to the linter when using the programmatic API. Helper functions are provided to create a program from a tsconfig.json file. A project directory can be specified if project files do not lie in the same directory as the tsconfig.json file.

import { Linter, Configuration } from "tslint";

const configurationFilename = "Specify configuration file name";
const options = {
    fix: false,
    formatter: "json",
    rulesDirectory: "customRules/",
    formattersDirectory: "customFormatters/"
};

const program = Linter.createProgram("tsconfig.json", "projectDir/");
const linter = new Linter(options, program);

const files = Linter.getFileNames(program);
files.forEach(file => {
    const fileContents = program.getSourceFile(file).getFullText();
    const configuration = Configuration.findConfiguration(configurationFilename, file).results;
    linter.lint(file, fileContents, configuration);
});

const results = linter.getResult();

Usage