Feature request: integrate salt-lint via marketplace extension

[jmunson]

It would be nice if this could lint SLS files with roaldnefs/salt-lint for you

[marek-obuchowicz]

I did a quick check - however i think the only way to integrate it with external linter is to implement language server. This doesn't seem like super trival - or, at least, i have not found a good example, which can be used as base for integration with salt-lint. If you have any mscode modules which handle that and can help as an example, i would be happy to look into.

[roaldnefs]

Let me know if there is anything we can help with from the salt-lint side. I've just started using vscode myself and would like to be able to use salt-lint from within vscode.

Note: the salt-lint project has been moved to warpnet/salt-lint.

[jbouter]

Hey lads, cheers for this brilliant idea. I have no idea how vscode plugins work, but would it help to have a container image (docker) available?

EDIT: that's nonsense of course, excuse my recommendation. Having the binary available in ones $PATH should be sufficient to call it. So a simple pip install would suffice.

[marek-obuchowicz]

@roaldnefs what we would need is basically a language server, which is using common protocol: https://microsoft.github.io/language-server-protocol/
There are some online resources targeting python implementation (i don't think it would be logical to use js or any other language for the server, as salt-lint consumes parts of saltstack code, which is written in python) - among them, this one actually looks like pretty interesting:
https://github.com/palantir/python-language-server

[roaldnefs]

I've just finished a proof of concept without having to implement a language server:

This requires some changes on the warpnet/salt-lint side:

• The vscode extension expects the output of salt-lint to be in JSON format.
• The severity needs to be added to the output of salt-lint to differentiate between warnings and errors.

Besides those additions it would be nice if salt-lint was able to do the following things:

• Return the exact position of the mistake (start line, start column, end line and end column).
• Return a suggestion on how to fix the line, so vscode can apply a quick fix.

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I also wonder if the users of vscode-saltstack are willing to install salt-lint or if the linter should be set up in a separate extension. What is your (@marek-obuchowicz, @jbouter) opinion about this?

[jbouter]

I'm open to both options. I think the functionality fits well inside vscode-saltstack (and requires users only to install one extension), but I'll leave that up to @marek-obuchowicz

[jbouter]

Looking at the time this issue has been waiting for reply, I'm leaning towards creating our own extension and updating its code from there.

[roaldnefs]

We have created a separate extension for salt-lint (see warpnet/vscode-salt-lint). Due to a mismatch in the language ID the salt-lint extension isn't compatibly with vscode-saltstack, this should be fixed in warpnet/vscode-salt-lint#4.

Edit: just released v0.0.3 including the compatibility fix for vscode-saltstack!

[marek-obuchowicz]

Great news, @roaldnefs - will definitely give it a try!
About one vs two extensions - i think one extension is more convenient, but that's not a big deal. One installs extensions just once and then uses them, so having two is fine as well. If you would like to look into merging those repos, let me know.
And yeah, response times might be affected by current work load and/or other reasons...

[mchugh19]

I would also prefer a single extension for salt support, but if there are going to remain two, can they be combined into an extension pack?

[roaldnefs]

I would also prefer a single extension for salt support, but if there are going to remain two, can they be combined into an extension pack?

@marek-obuchowicz, are you oke with the idea of creating an extension pack? It might be a small step towards creating a single (combined) SaltStack plugin.