gobject-linter

A fast tree-sitter-based linter for GObject/C code.

Previously known as goblint.

Usage

# Lint current directory with default config
gobject-linter

# Lint specific directory
gobject-linter /path/to/project

# Use custom config file
gobject-linter --config my-lint.toml /path/to/project

# Verbose output
gobject-linter -v

# List all available rules with their enabled/disabled status
gobject-linter --list-rules

# Run only specific rules (overrides config)
gobject-linter --only use_g_strcmp0 --only use_clear_functions

# Add custom ignore patterns
gobject-linter --ignore "build/**" --ignore "tests/**"

Available Rules

Browse all available rules at https://bilelmoussaoui.github.io/gobject-linter/ with descriptions, examples, and configuration options.

Run gobject-linter --list-rules to see the current status of all rules in your terminal.

Configuration

Create a gobject-linter.toml file in your project root to configure rules, set minimum GLib version, and define per-rule ignore patterns.

You can also use inline comments to suppress specific violations:

/* gobject-linter-ignore-next-line: use_g_strlcpy */
strcpy(dst, src);

See CONFIG.md for complete configuration documentation.

CI/CD Integration

Container Image

gobject-linter is available as a container image for easy CI/CD integration:

podman run --rm -v "$PWD:/workspace:Z" ghcr.io/bilelmoussaoui/gobject-linter:latest

GitHub Actions

Using the container image with GitHub Code Scanning:

name: GObject Lint

on:
  push:
    branches: [ main ]
  pull_request:
    branches: [ main ]

jobs:
  lint:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    container:
      image: ghcr.io/bilelmoussaoui/gobject-linter:latest
    permissions:
      security-events: write  # Required for uploading SARIF results

    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Run gobject-linter
        run: gobject-linter --format sarif > gobject-linter.sarif

      - name: Upload SARIF results
        uses: github/codeql-action/upload-sarif@v3
        with:
          sarif_file: gobject-linter.sarif
          category: gobject-linter

The results will appear in the "Security" tab under "Code scanning alerts" for your repository, and as inline comments on pull requests.

GitLab CI

Using the container image with GitLab's SARIF ingestion or CodeQuality report:

gobject-linter:
  stage: lint
  image:
    name: "ghcr.io/bilelmoussaoui/gobject-linter:latest"
    entrypoint: [""]
  script:
    # Only available in Enterprise Edition
    - gobject-linter --format sarif > gobject-linter.sarif
    # Available in the Community Edition
    - gobject-linter --format gitlab-codequality > gobject-linter-codequality.json
  artifacts:
    expire_in: "1 week"
    reports:
      # Only available in Enterprise Edition
      sarif: gobject-linter.sarif
      # Available in the Community Edition
      codequality: gobject-linter-codequality.json

The results will appear in the merge request's security report and as inline comments.

Diff-scoped reporting

Pass --diff - to restrict violations to lines changed in the current pull request. This is useful for incremental adoption: existing violations in untouched code are silenced, and only new or modified lines are checked.

GitHub Actions:

- name: Run gobject-linter (PR changes only)
  if: github.event_name == 'pull_request'
  run: |
    git diff origin/${{ github.base_ref }}...HEAD | gobject-linter --diff -

GitLab CI:

- git diff origin/$CI_MERGE_REQUEST_TARGET_BRANCH_NAME...HEAD | gobject-linter --diff -

Installation Alternative

If you prefer installing locally instead of using containers:

cargo install --git https://github.com/bilelmoussaoui/gobject-linter gobject-linter

LSP Server

For real-time linting in your editor:

cargo build --release --bin gobject-linter-lsp

Neovim (nvim-lspconfig):

require('lspconfig.configs').gobject_lsp = {
  default_config = {
    cmd = {"gobject-linter-lsp"},
    filetypes = {'c', 'h'},
    root_dir = require('lspconfig.util').root_pattern('gobject-linter.toml', 'goblint.toml', '.git'),
  },
}
require('lspconfig').gobject_lsp.setup{}

VS Code: Use a generic LSP client extension pointing to gobject-linter-lsp

Helix (~/.config/helix/languages.toml):

[[language]]
name = "c"
language-servers = ["clangd", "gobject-linter-lsp"]

[language-server.gobject-linter-lsp]
command = "gobject-linter-lsp"

Projects using gobject-linter

• fwupd - A system daemon to allow session software to update firmware (workflow)
• xdg-desktop-portal - Desktop integration portal (workflow)
• Crosswords - A Crossword player and editor for GNOME (workflow)

Co-Authored by Claude Code.