Thunderbird's source code is linted and formatted using automated tools, which provides several benefits that include:
ensuring a consistent formatting style across the code base
preventing formatting issues from taking up developer time in code review
catching problems that might otherwise go unnoticed
making it easier for developers to write well-formatted code
Mozlint is a library that standardizes linter configuration and provides an interface for running all linters at once. It is run via mach and is run automatically by Taskcluster.
Running Linters Locally
You can run all the various linters in the tree using the mach lint command. Simply pass in the directory or file you wish to lint (defaults to current working directory):
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./mach lint path/to/files
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If not you're familiar with using mach lint on Firefox code, see the Firefox Linting documentation to get started.
Configuring Mozlint for Thunderbird
By default, mach lint is configured to check Firefox code. Thunderbird has its own set of configurations. To use them, add the hidden option --config-path. --config-path is always relative to the mozilla source directory, not your current directory.
Because --config-path is always relative to the source root, you can set up an alias in ~/.mozbuild/machrc so you don't have to remember the extra option. On Windows, you should find machrc at C:\Users\<you>\.mozbuild\machrc.
Add these lines yourmachrcfile.
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[alias]
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commlint = lint --config-path=comm/tools/lint
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Now mach commlint is the same as running mach --lint --config-path=comm/tools/lint. See mach settings for more details.
Suite code
The Mozlint configuration files in comm/tools/lint are written so that they can be shared with the Seamonkey project. Thunderbird developers may want to set MOZLINT_NO_SUITE=1 in their environment so mach lint will not check comm/suite/ or comm/editor. Taskcluster will also set MOZLINT_NO_SUITE when running lint checks.
Taskcluster
Several mozlint-based checks run automatically on Taskcluster, and more are being added. The Firefox Linting documentation is a valuable resource if you're seeing errors on your try builds. If you are not sure how to run a check locally, the mach commands run by Taskcluster are in comm/taskcluster/ci/source-test/mozlint.yml.