How to format and lint a Lua project
In this guide, we'll learn how to keep our codebase clean and maintainable with formatting and linting tools.
lx fmt
In Lux, formatting is done via a bundled implementation of stylua.
By default, lx fmt will loosely follow the Roblox Lua Style Guide.
To configure the formatting behaviour, create a .stylua.toml or stylua.toml in the
root of your project. Below is an example file:
syntax = "All"
column_width = 120
line_endings = "Unix"
indent_type = "Tabs"
indent_width = 4
quote_style = "AutoPreferDouble"
call_parentheses = "Always"
collapse_simple_statement = "Never"
space_after_function_names = "Never"
[sort_requires]
enabled = false
Linting with luacheck
Linting is the process of analyzing code for stylistic and logic error (lines too long, unused variables, etc.).
Lux comes with luacheck, a linter for Lua code, built-in. To run luacheck on your project, use the following command:
lx check
We recommend running this automatically through a git hook, or running it manually at the end of every significant addition/refactor of your code.
Git Hooks
We recommend setting up a Git hook to run lx check and lx fmt before
each commit to ensure that you never forget to lint and format your code.
To set up a Git hook, create a file called .git/hooks/pre-commit in your
project directory with the following content:
#!/bin/sh
lx check
lx fmt
Make sure to make the file executable:
chmod +x .git/hooks/pre-commit